Roadside bomb kills three Yemeni soldiers

A roadside bomb struck a car with army soldiers in Yemen Tuesday, killing three soldiers and injuring two others, a government source said.

The bombing, which hit the car belonging to the 27th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, happened in the Qattan region of the southeastern province of Hadramout, where the Al Qaeda has a strong presence, the local government source told Xinhua by phone, requesting anonymity.

"It wasn't immediately clear if any of the high-ranking army officers in Hadramout military leadership was in the targeted car," the source said.

An intelligence officer confirmed the attack, saying that "a mine planted by suspected Al Qaeda militants on a road in Qattan district struck a vehicle of the army this (Tuesday) morning".

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest bombing.

The province of Hadramout has been the scene of several military offensives against Al Qaeda operatives during the past two years.

Yemeni military officials have blamed militants of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) for a series of assassinations and armed attacks, mostly in the country's southern regions.

The AQAP, which emerged in January 2009 and is also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, is considered one of the greatest threats to the Yemeni government and neighbouring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.