ADEN: Unidentified assailants shot dead the deputy head of intelligence in the southeastern Yemeni city of Mukalla on Tuesday, a security official said.

Colonel Ahmed al-Ramada, deputy chief of political security in the city, was killed on his way to work, the official told AFP, adding that al Qaeda could have been behind the attack.

Mukalla, located on the Gulf of Aden, is the main city of the eastern province of Hadramawt, where al Qaeda militants are active.

Earlier this month, General Mahmud al-Sobaihi, a top army commander in the south, escaped an assassination bid when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle in Huta, the capital of Lahj province.

Sobaihi's troops played a major role in an anti-Qaeda offensive that ended the control in June of jihadist militants in a string of towns and cities which they had held across the south for a year.

Although weakened, the network's militants continue to launch hit-and-run attacks on members of the security forces across Yemen.