Yemen prime minister unhurt after ambush

SANAA, Yemen – Gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of Yemen’s prime minister on Saturday but he escaped unharmed, an aide said.

The attack on Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Bassindwa’s convoy in the Yemeni capital comes after a senior intelligence officer was fatally shot in the country’s south by unknown assailants.

Ali al-Sarari, a media aide to the prime minister, said the gunmen were riding in a vehicle without license plates and sprayed the speeding three-car convoy with bullets. Some of the vehicles were pockmarked with bullet holes but Bassindwa escaped unharmed, he said.

Militants in Yemen have been behind a series of assassinations of security officers as the government battles with al-Qaida militants who have mainly operated in the country’s south. Attempts on politicians are rare, however.