Yemen police officer's body 'found mutilated'

Yemen police officer's body 'found mutilated'

Yemeni police have found the mutilated body of an officer kidnapped last month in the eastern province of Hadramawt, a security official said on Thursday, pointing to Al-Qaeda militants as suspects.

“The security forces found the body of Lieutenant Colonel Al-Numeiri Abdo al-Oudi,” who was the deputy police chief in Al-Qotn village, the official said.

Oudi’s body had “received several shots in the chest while his ears were cut off and his eyes gouged out”.

The official said Al-Qaeda militants, who are active in southern and eastern Yemen, could have been behind the killing as “no other party can be barbaric to such a degree”.

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped the police commander on November 29 as he made his way to the mosque in Al-Qotn for dawn prayers, said the same source.

Deadly attacks against officers of the security forces are common in Yemen, a country engaged in a difficult political transition after year-long protests forced veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit in November 2011.

The uprising weakened the central government and Al-Qaeda took advantage by reinforcing its preserence in the lawless south, although government forces have since seized back a string of cities and towns.

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