RIYADH/SANAA: Gunmen shot dead a Saudi Arabian diplomat and his bodyguard in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Wednesday, Yemeni officials and diplomatic sources said.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Riyadh identified the victim as Khaled Shubaikan Al-Anazi, the Kingdom's assistant military attache in Sanaa. The spokesman said Al-Anazi was shot dead along with his Yemeni bodyguard as they were going out of his residence.

Nobody so far has claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place in Sanaa’s southern district of Hada, where embassies and diplomats’ residences are located.

A Reuters report from Sanaa earlier quoted a Yemeni official saying, “Gunmen opened fire at the Saudi diplomat’s car in a neighborhood in southern Sanaa, killing him and his Yemeni bodyguard.”

The killing was the latest in a series of attacks on officials and politicians in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state, which is battling Islamist militants with US assistance.

Restoring stability in Yemen is an international priority because of its strategic position as well as major shipping lanes.

In south Yemen, jihadists are still holding the Saudi deputy consul in Aden, Abdullah Al-Khalidi, who was abducted on March 28 by Al-Qaeda militants seeking to secure the release of female prisoners and to collect a ransom.

Al-Qaeda has exploited the weakening central government in Sanaa to strengthen its presence in areas across the restive south and southeast.

In October 2010, three people including a diplomat were hurt in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a British embassy car in Sanaa.

That attack came less than six months after Britain’s ambassador to the Arabian Peninsula country escaped an assault by a suicide bomber on his convoy in Sanaa.

More recently, attacks in Sanaa have targeted members of the security forces and have mostly been claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the network’s deadliest branch.

In May, as soldiers rehearsed for a parade, an attacker detonated explosives hidden under his uniform in the middle of a battalion, killing 96 troops and wounding about 300. The attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda.

In October, unidentified gunmen shot dead a senior Yemeni security official employed by the US embassy in a Sanaa hit-and-run attack.

Earlier this year, Yemeni troops launched an all-out offensive against the militants who had taken over a string of towns and cities in the southern Abyan province, regaining the army’s control on the province.