Suspected Al-Qaeda militants shot dead a Yemeni intelligence officer in the restive southern province of Lahij, a security source said on Friday.

Suspected Al-Qaeda militants shot dead a Yemeni intelligence officer in the restive southern province of Lahij, a security source said on Friday.

"On Thursday night Al-Qaeda gunmen shot Rashid al-Hawi, commander of the intelligence service, killing him on the spot near his home in Huta," the source said.

At around the same time in another part of Huta, police colonel Abdelkader al-Daqf survived an attack by Al-Qaeda insurgents, but one of his relatives was killed, the same source said.

A police chief in Huta, the provincial capital, was shot and wounded on Wednesday night in an attack also attributed to the terrorist group.