SANAA: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Yemeni officer in the capital in a “terrorist” attack late on Wednesday, the third assassination targeting senior officers in two weeks, the defence ministry said.

Colonel Yahya Saleh al-Khalidi, director of the office of the head of Duleimi air base in Sanaa, was shot dead by “criminal elements... in a treacherous terrorist attack,” it said in a statement carried by Saba state news agency.

Gunmen targeted Khalidi as he left his house and was heading to work, it added.

Security officials said it was the third killing of its kind in just two weeks.

Colonel Yahya Badi in the intelligence Political Security apparatus was shot dead last month in northeast Sanaa by gunmen on a motorbike.

And an officer in customs security, Colonel Yahya al-Munsif, was shot dead on Tuesday near his workplace.

Yemen's unity government, created to lead a political transition after the ousting of veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh in February, is struggling to restructure security forces that have long been dominated by Saleh loyalists.