Unidentified gunmen assassinated an imam of a mosque in the city of Aden on Tuesday. This incident comes in the framework of the ongoing series of assassinations targeting social and political figures, preachers and imams of mosques.

Eyewitnesses in Aden reported that unknown gunmen assassinated the 70-year-old imam of al-Taqwa Mosque, Haj Hamid al-Athuri, in al-Nasr neighborhood of Khur Maksar.

Witnesses confirmed that unknown gunmen opened fire on al-Athuri as he left his home in Aden and died instantly and that the perpetrators fled to an unknown destination.

Shaker, the son of Hamid al-Athuri, explained that his father was a Muezzin (a person who calls to prayer) of some prayer's times at al-Furqan Mosque in al-Nasr district of Khur Maksar, especially the prayers of Maghrib and 'Isha'. He was a semi-permanent Muezzin for Friday prayers; in addition to he was sometimes leading the prayer when the Imam of the mosque is absent.

Shaker added by saying “We were shocked when we received the news of the assassination of my father with two bullets, one of which was in his chest by three gunmen on a Corolla car carrying no number, according to eyewitnesses.”

He pointed out that the assassination of his father took place on Tuesday, while the body was buried on Wednesday in the cemetery of Abu Harba in the area of Enmaa, after making a report at the police station Sheikh Osman.

This criminal operation comes as part of a series of ongoing assassinations in Aden targeting leaders of the resistance who confronted the Houthi militias, including politicians and social figures as well as voluntary and relief workers.

According to statistics of the assassinations carried out in Aden, more than 25 imams and preachers have been assassinated since the liberation of the city from the Houthi militia in mid-2015 amid the failure of the security authorities, which did not reveal the identity of any criminal in all crimes of assassinations carried out until now.

The last crime of the assassinations was the assassination that targeted the journalist and leader of the Islah Party in al-Dhalee', Zaki al-Sakaldi earlier this month near his home in the city of Dhalee'. Before three days of this assassination, the governorate police found the director of CSSW — Aden's branch, Muhammad al-Shujaina, dead, chained and blindfolded in his car on Abyan coast of in the district of Khur Maksar, hours after he was kidnapped by unknown gunmen in front of his house in the Directorate of Tawahi.