The official blamed the killing on militant Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda. It was the most recent of a string of attacks targeting security officials in southern Yemen, swathes of which are controlled by Islamist fighters.
The gunmen snatched the officer from the provincial city of Mukalla on Wednesday and shot him dead several hours later, an official in the southern Hadramout province said.
Security forces and troops traded fire with the gunmen after discovering the body, the official said.
The Islamists’ footprint in the south expanded during a year of mass protest against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. A split in the military led to fighting among rival units and threatened to tip into civil war.
Saleh gave way to his deputy last month under the terms of power transfer deal crafted by his Gulf neighbors with US and UN backing. It envisions elections in 2014, with the military to be restructured in the meantime.
Saleh’s son and nephew have control of key units armed for “counter-terrorism” by the United States, which was the target of an abortive bomb plot by the Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda.
