Al-Qaeda-linked militants kill Yemen Houthi official

The assailants who were riding a motorbike opened fire on Mohammad Mutahhar Al-Shami, chairman of the Medical Revolutionary Committee at the Military Hospital, killing him on the spot.
 
Reports added that another person who was accompanying Al-Shami was also killed in the attack.
 
Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants in a Saturday message posted on Twitter claimed responsibility for the deadly hit-and-run assault.
 
Over the past months, al-Qaeda militants have frequently carried out attacks on Yemen’s security forces. The militants have also been engaged in battles with the Shia Ansarullah fighters. 
 
Yemen’s central government has so far failed to deal with the terrorist threat. 
 
Ansarullah fighters, who played a major role in ousting Yemen’s former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, have intervened to fill the vacuum and have driven al-Qaeda militants out of many areas in the country. 
 
Ali al-Emad, an Ansarullah leader, has recently said that Saudi Arabia backs armed al-Qaeda extremists in order to control oil and service centers in the Yemeni provinces of Ma’rib and Hadhramaut.
 
He also added that Riyadh seeks to prevent changes in Yemen in fear of their possible impact on the ongoing policies pertaining to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.