A Saudi diplomat and his bodyguard were killed in broad daylight when their car was raked with gunfire by unidentified assailants in the Yemeni capital on Wednesday, a diplomatic source said.
“Gunmen dressed in the central security forces’ uniforms opened fire heavily at the car of the Saudi diplomat in Sanaa, causing it to flip over, killing him and his bodyguard,” the source told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The diplomat is an official at the embassy’s military section in Yemen, the source said.
The attack, which has not immediately been claimed, took place in Sanaa’s southern district of Hada, where embassies and diplomats’ residences are located.
In October 2010, three people including a diplomat were hurt in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a British embassy car in Sanaa.
That attack came less than six months after Britain’s ambassador to the Arabian Peninsula country escaped an assault by a suicide bomber on his convoy in Sanaa.
More recently, attacks in Sanaa have targeted members of the security forces and have mostly been claimed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the network’s deadliest branch.