ADEN: Suspected Al-Qaeda militants shot dead a Yemeni intelligence officer yesterday in the southern province of Lahj, a local security official said, a day after three air force pilots were killed in a similar attack.

About 60 military and security officials have been shot dead in southern and eastern Yemen since 2011 after an insurgency erupted, exploiting political chaos caused by a mass uprising that ousted Ali Abdullah Saleh.

“The officer, Mohammed Ahmed Saleh Al-Koobi, was shot with a silenced weapon while he was walking through the streets of his hometown (in Lahj),” the local security official said.

He said the attackers were believed to be linked to Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, seen by Washington as the most dangerous arm of the global jihadi group. On Wednesday, Al-Qaeda-associated gunmen killed the air force pilots as they were traveling to a southern air base that is jointly used with US forces to strike at AQAP.