ADEN, Yemen, June 29 (Reuters) - A Yemeni colonel was killed when a bomb exploded in his car, a security source said on Wednesday, the second attack on a senior army officer in the southern port city of Aden this month.
Colonel Khaled al-Yafi'i, commander of a military outpost guarding the Aden Free Zone business park's entrance, died late on Tuesday in front of his home in the al-Mansoura district.
The outpost was targeted by a car bomb on Friday that killed four soldiers and a civilian and injured 16 other people.
Witnesses said the car was destroyed and that residents and police pulled the colonel's charred body out of the wreckage.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamist militants affiliated with al Qaeda are active in southern Yemen.
Earlier this month a bomb destroyed the car of Colonel Muti'a al-Sayani, a close relative of a provincial governor who is among Saleh's supporters.
The impoverished Arab state has been rocked by months of protests demanding that President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is recovering in Saudi Arabia from injuries sustained in an attack on his palace earlier this month, end his 33 years in power.
Western countries and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's No. 1 oil exporter, fear al Qaeda may exploit instability in Yemen to launch attacks in the region and beyond. (Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Louise Ireland)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
