DHAKA: Gunmen shot dead a Yemeni army colonel and his son on Sunday when he stopped his car at a roundabout in his hometown.

A local official said, extending a string of assassinations of top armed forces figures by suspected Islamist militants, reports The Jerusalem Post.

Four passers-by were also wounded when the gunmen, who were on foot, fired on Colonel Ahmed al-Marfadi, deputy commander of the 37th Armored Division, and his son when they stopped at a traffic light in the centre of the town of al-Qatan in the province of Hadramout, the government official said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Yemeni officials have blamed similar assassinations on Islamist militants linked to al-Qaida. Several Yemeni news websites published pictures of Marfadi’s body lying inside his four-wheel drive vehicle after the attack.

Tackling lawlessness in Yemen, situated near important oil shipment routes and bordering the world’s biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia, is an international concern for the United States and other Western countries.

Yemen is the base of an al-Qaida branch that has planned international bomb attacks.

BDST: 2006 HRS, DEC 01, 2013