Suspected al-Qaida gunmen riding on the back of a motorcyle killed a Yemeni intelligence officer in the south of the country on Saturday, a security official told Agence France-Presse.
The officer of the rank of colonel was in his car at a market in Taben, a town in the southern Lahij province, when one of the two attackers opened fire at him with Kalashnikov rifles, the official said.
The officer was killed on the spot, and the attackers fled the scene, said the source blaming al-Qaida terrorists for the killing.
A cheap form of transportion frequently replacing taxis in the impoverished country, motorcycles have become a tool for hit-and-run shootings that have killed dozens of officials in recent years.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the network's deadliest franchise, has been blamed for most of the motorcycle attacks on the security forces despite never claiming credit for them.
In December, Yemen enforced a temporary ban on motorcycles in the capital to prevent attacks as the politicians engaged in national dialogue talks.
On Wednesday, Yemeni police killed two al-Qaida suspects blamed for in a series of hit-and-run attacks against security personnel in the capital.
The next day, however, a gunman riding on the back of a motorcycle shot dead a Yemeni intelligence officer and his son in the southeastern city of Mukalla in broad daylight.
Al-Qaida exploited the 11-month-long 2011 uprising that led to the ouster of longtime strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh to seize large swathes of southern and eastern Yemen.
The army recaptured several major towns in Abyan and Shabwa provinces further west in 2012 but has struggled to reassert control in rural areas despite recruiting militia allies among the local tribes.
Troops launched a new offensive in the two provinces on April 29 and have entered a string of smaller towns.