Red Cross officer killed in drive-by shooting in southwest Yemen

ADEN (Reuters): A member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Yemen’s southwestern province of Taiz on Saturday, a security official told Xinhua.

“Unknown gunmen raided the car of an ICRC team with a barrage of gunshots in the public market of Dhabab in Taiz Province, killing the team leader on the spot,” the local security source said on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses said the ICRC worker was shot in the chest near a shop and died immediately. Other local sources revealed that the killed field officer was Lebanese. The ICRC delegation in Yemen also confirmed the shooting in a short statement obtained by Xinhua.

“We are in mourning for one of our colleagues who was shot dead in Yemen this morning. We are trying to find out more about this tragic incident,” the statement said.

The attackers fled the scene. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Taiz has witnessed an uptick in assassinations and attacks targeting military officials and humanitarian aid workers during the past months.

On March 26, 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition of 10 Arab countries, backed by the United States, intervened in the Yemeni conflict, in order to roll back the Houthis’ progress and reinstate exiled President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to the power.

The ongoing civil war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displayed around 3 million others, according to UN aid agencies. The conflict has also triggered the world’s most serious humanitarian crisis and pushed the poor Arab country to the brink of mass famine.