ADEN, Yemen -- A high-ranking Yemeni security official was assassinated by a masked gunman in a drive-by shooting in the southeastern province of Hadramout on Sunday, a government official told Xinhua.

Colonel Majed Mater, the commander of the central security forces in Hadramout, was gunned down by a masked gunman on a bicycle, the local official said on condition of anonymity.

He added that the victim died shortly after being sent to the hospital.

The Yemeni officials said the killing bore the hallmarks of al- Qaida group, but it's too early to determine if the group was behind it.

Yemeni security services have repeatedly blamed militants of the al-Qaida offshoot in the country for a series of assassination attacks, mostly in the country's southern regions.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, emerged in January 2009, is considered as a major threat to the Yemeni government and its neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.