Gunmen shot dead a police official in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout on Sunday, a government official told Xinhua, the latest in a string of killings targeting members of the security forces.

"Unknown men fired at criminal police investigator Ahmed Omeer, killing him instantly near his home," in the province of Hadramout, the local government official said on condition of anonymity.

The government source said Omeer was hit by five bullets in the chest and head, fired by masked gunmen riding on a motorbike.

On Saturday, Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi declared the closure of a national dialogue which endorsed a new federal political system in the Arab country.

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. Endi

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