SANA’A, Yemen — Gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of Yemen’s prime minister in the capital of Sana’a yesterday, but he escaped unharmed, an aide said.
The attack on Mohammed Salem Bassindwa’s convoy in the Yemeni capital comes after a senior intelligence officer was shot dead in the country’s south by unknown assailants, according to security officials.
The shooters, riding in a vehicle without license plates, sprayed Mohammed Salem Bassindwa’s speeding three-car convoy with bullets, said Ali al-Sarari, a media aide to the prime minister. Some of the vehicles were pockmarked with bullet holes, but Bassindwa escaped unharmed, he said.
It is unclear if the attack was an operation targeting Bassindwa or part of the country’s increasing lawlessness and tension.
Bassindwa was appointed in late 2011 to head a coalition government comprised of ministers from both the opposition and officials from the regime of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who later stepped down in face of popular protest.
In nearly a year of turmoil, security collapsed in some parts of Yemen. Al Qaeda-linked terrorists also took advantage of the political unrest to reinforce their presence in some areas in the country’s south.
Yesterday, security officials in Yemen said suspected al Qaeda-linked gunmen shot and killed a senior intelligence officer.
They said Hassan al-Mansouri was killed in Labous, in the southern Lahj province, following a day of clashes between local tribesmen and suspected members of al Qaeda in the area.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters, the officials said Al-Mansouri had organized local tribes in a campaign to weed out the terrorists from the area.
The officials said they suspect the officers’ killers are from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Washington considers the group as the most dangerous al Qaeda branch to threaten US interests, and has launched drone attacks against it in Yemen.
Yemen security forces also battle against the group, which has killed security officials in the past.