Gunmen kill Yemeni security staff at US mission

DUBAI: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a senior Yemeni security official employed by the US embassy in Sanaa in a hit-and-run attack on Thursday, a security official and a US diplomat said.

Qassem Aqlan was shot dead by gunmen on a motorbike as he drove along Sittin Street, a main artery of the Yemeni capital, the official said, adding the assailants managed to escape.

A US diplomat said Aqlan was in charge of coordinating a US and Yemeni probe into an attack last month on the embassy by protesters angry over an anti-Islam film that triggered a wave of deadly demonstrations across the Muslim world.