A suicide car bomber killed at least six army officers and wounded many others on Sunday after targeting a military police building in Yemen’s southern coastal city of Mukallah, a local security official said.

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The suicide bomber reportedly drove his vehicule close to the building, where he argued with officers before the bomb went off.

“There are six soldiers killed and the toll is likely to go up ... we cannot tell the wounded from the dead,” the security official said, adding that local authorities were working on extracting victims from the rubble of the two-storey building.

Residents said ambulances had been evacuating the wounded from the scene of the blast which had sent shrapnel flying into nearby residential buildings.

The explosion appeared to be in retaliation for the army’s recent campaign against the Yemeni militant group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in the country’s southern provinces Shabwa and Abyan.

In a separate assault in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday, three gunmen were killed after they tried to attack a security checkpoint, the Interior Ministry said, the second such incident close to presidential palace in as many days.

The checkpoint attack also appeared to be retaliation for the army offensive, which state news agency Saba said had killed and wounded hundreds of al Qaeda members.

Western powers are concerned AQAP could use Yemen as a springboard for future international attacks.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, REUTERS)

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