SANAA: Assailants on a motorbike on Wednesday shot dead one of Yemen’s top journalists, Abdul Kareem Al-Khaiwani, who is also an activist close to the country’s dominant Houthi group, police sources said.

The group’s television channel Al-Maseerah said Al-Khaiwani, who had served as a delegate for the group in a national dialogue conference on Yemen’s future, was “martyred in a criminal assassination” near his house in the center of the capital Sanaa.

The killing ends a relative lull in bombing and shooting attacks in the capital since the Houthis ousted the government in January.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though Al-Qaeda militants have claimed several previous attacks on the Houthis, whom it regards as heretics.

Khaiwani’s editorials were once the scourge of Yemen’s veteran autocrat, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and he accused the ruler of 33 years of styling his son to succeed him.

“He was one of the godfathers of Yemen’s tradition of saying no to those in authority,” said his friend, Yemeni writer Farea Al-Muslimi. “His death is a new wound in an already bloody experience for Yemen. It’s truly depressing and frightening,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is unable to account for more than $500 million in US military aid given to Yemen amid fears that the weaponry, aircraft and equipment is at risk of being seized by Iranian-backed rebels or Al-Qaeda, according to US officials.

With Yemen in turmoil and its government splintering apart, the Defense Department has lost its ability to monitor the whereabouts of US-donated small arms, ammunition, night-vision goggles, patrol boats, vehicles and other supplies.

The situation has grown worse since the US closed its embassy in Sanaa month and withdrew many of its military advisers