Senior Yemeni army commander killed in car explosion

A high-ranking commander of the Yemeni armed forces was killed Saturday when a bomb attached to his car went off in the southern port city of Aden, a government official told Xinhua.
"The Brigadier Ahmed Saleh Omari was killed in Aden's district of Mansoura when a bomb believed to have been attached to his car exploded near a public market," the local government official said on condition of anonymity.
The government source said that Brigadier Omari works as a director of the military supply unit in the 3rd Regional Military Command stationed in Yemen's troubled southeastern provinces of Shabwa and Marib.
"The Brigadier was seriously injured in the bomb blast and was rushed to hospital, but unfortunately he was pronounced dead there, " a security official said, adding that two passers-by were also wounded.
Senior officials of the Yemeni Defense Ministry expressed shock at the killing of the army brigadier and condemned it as " senseless and heinous murder."
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Yemeni military officials blamed militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot for a series of assassinations and armed attacks, mostly in the country's southern parts.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, which emerged in January 2009, is considered one of the greatest threats to the Yemeni government and neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

Source: XINHUA