AHMED AL-HAJ
Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni security officials say militants have assassinated a senior intelligence officer in the country’s capital, Sanaa.

The officials say Col. Khaled al-Khawlani was killed in front of his house in a drive-by shooting on Wednesday.

Al-Khawlani was involved in investigating al-Qaida-linked militant cells suspected of being behind the abductions and killings of foreigners over the past months.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Yemen has seen dozens of police and military officers assassinated in apparent retaliatory attacks for the government’s offensive against al-Qaida hideouts in the south.

Washington considers Yemen’s al-Qaida branch as the terror group’s most dangerous offshoot.

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