Unknown gunmen shot dead an army colonel in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout on Tuesday, a government official told Xinhua.

The masked gunmen in a pickup truck attacked Colonel Abdul Ghany Makaleh, who worked at the army's economic corporation in Hadramout province, the government official said on condition of anonymity.

A police source confirmed to Xinhua saying that the army colonel was sent to a nearby medical center, but died later.

The incident comes a week after armed men gunned down two military commanders and an intelligence officer in the southern port city of Aden.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the drive-by shooting, however the militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot were blamed for a series of assassination attacks, mostly in the country's southern regions.

The al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which emerged in January 2009, is considered the most strategic threat to the Yemeni government and neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.