An army officer shot Ethiopia’s security chief to death Saturday as the official, a close ally of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, was making his way into an officers club in the capital, state radio reported.

Kinfe Gebremedhin, 46, had been head of the Federal Security and Immigration Authority of Ethiopia since the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, took power in 1991.

He was killed by an army major while entering the armed forces officers club, Radio Ethiopia said.

“The killer greeted him first, and as Kinfe was passing, he shot him from the back,” one official said.

Radio Tana, another station close to the government, identified the suspected killer as Maj. Tsehaye Woldeselassie. It said he had been wounded while trying to escape.

Kinfe was also a politburo and central committee member of the Tigre People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, the dominant part of the coalition that makes up the EPRDF.

Kinfe is said to have backed Meles during a power struggle within the TPLF that culminated in the expulsion of 12 members of the TPLF’s 28-strong central committee in March.

There was speculation that the suspect was a sympathizer of the dissident wing of the TPLF.

Source: Los Angeles Times