ADEN, Nov 09, 2010 (AFP) - Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed a high-ranking Yemeni officer and wounded another in an attack on Tuesday in the southern Shabwa province, a security official said.
Suspected "Al-Qaeda gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons on a military vehicle" in which Colonel Ali Thawaba was riding, killing him, the official said.
Another officer was severely wounded in the attack, which was carried out in downtown Ataq, a town in Shabwa, according to the official.
Shabwa province is a stronghold of Al-Qaeda in Yemen and a bastion of the Awaliq tribe, to which belongs radical US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, who has been charged with incitement to kill foreigners and is wanted by both Yemen and the United States.
Awlaqi has been accused of links with Major Nidal Hasan, suspected of shooting dead 13 people at Fort Hood military base in Texas last November, and of having had contact with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian accused of trying to blow up the plane on Christmas Day.
Yemen faces a continuing threat from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the local branch of Osama bin Laden's extremist organisation.
Two parcel bombs posted from Yemen to the United States were discovered in Dubai and Britain in October.
Two people, among them one policeman, were killed and 22 wounded on Thursday in a car bombing in a market near the security headquarters in the southern town of Daleh.
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Copyright AFP 2010.
