Correction: Yemen’s state news agency is called SABA. This article misidentified the agency’s name.

SANA, Yemen - Gunmen killed an Iranian diplomat in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Yemen’s capital, security and medical officials said, the latest attack on Iran’s diplomatic corps in the Middle East in recent months.

Iranian state television announced that Ali Asghar Asadi, Iran’s economic attache in Sana, was “martyred.” The broadcast said Asadi was attacked while driving and was shot four times in the chest and stomach. It did not elaborate.

Three Yemeni security officials said Asadi was leaving the Iranian ambassador’s house in the city’s southern Hadda neighborhood when assailants opened fire. They said he died in a hospital. A medical official confirmed the diplomat’s death.

Another Yemeni security official said the diplomat suffered three gunshot wounds in the chest and shoulder. The two accounts of the shooting could not be immediately reconciled.

The official said the initial investigation suggested the gunmen first attempted to kidnap the diplomat by stopping his car. When the diplomat resisted, the assailants shot him and fled the area, which is a busy commercial district, the official said.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to journalists.

Relations between Iran and Yemen have soured over what Sana calls Iranian meddling in its domestic affairs. But Yemen Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi quickly condemned Saturday’s attack, calling it a “terrorist criminal act” that targeted bilateral relations. Al-Qirbi said the two countries want to avoid any attempts to harm relations.

“This operation has targeted the Yemeni-Iranian relations before it targeted the diplomat,” he told the state news agency SANA. He said authorities will pursue the culprits and bring them to justice.

Another Iranian diplomat in Yemen was abducted by gunmen in July and remains a captive. Officials suspect al-Qaida militants to be behind that kidnapping. Negotiations to secure his release have so far failed.

Al-Qaida’s Yemen branch is the world’s most active, using political turmoil in the impoverished Persian Gulf country to strengthen its presence there. The government has been battling the militant groups, with assistance from the U.S., which has killed a number of suspected members in drone strikes.

Targeted killings of security officials have been on the rise in Yemen. A security official said an intelligence officer was slain by unknown assailants Thursday in a driveby shooting in the southern province of Lahj.

Iran’s diplomats also have been targeted elsewhere in the region. In November, suicide bombers hit the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, killing at least 23 people. Shiite-powerhouse Iran is the chief patron of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and an ally of Syria’s President Bashar Assad.

In Yemen, the government and neighboring Saudi Arabia accuse Tehran of supporting Shiite rebels in the north, seeking to destabilize the country. Iran has dismissed the accusations.

Information for this article was contributed by Ali Akbar Dareini of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 11 on 01/19/2014