SANAA: Yemeni security officials say masked gunmen have killed a prominent judge who was known for sentencing Al-Qaeda militants to prison in the southern port city of Aden.

They say gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire Saturday on Judge Mohsen Alwan’s vehicle in Aden’s Mansoura neighborhood, killing him and three others.

No one immediately claimed the attack, but officials suspect Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch was behind it. Al-Qaeda militants have previously used motorcycles in their assassinations.

Al-Qaeda has recently made land grabs in southern and eastern Yemen, exploiting the chaos of the country’s larger conflict, which pits Shiite Houthi rebels allied with a former president against the internationally recognized government.