ADEN (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at least three people and wounded 12 on Wednesday in an attack on the convoy of a senior military commander who survived the assault, President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's state-run news agency reported.
A security official put the death toll in the attack near the city of al-Qatan at eight and said that 17 other people were wounded, including the commander of the First Military Region, General Abdul-Rahman al-Halili, who suffered minor injuries.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamist militants from al Qaeda and Islamic State have repeatedly carried out attacks against Yemeni military and security forces in southern and eastern Yemen in recent months.
Halili, who was on his way to inspect Yemeni government forces when the attack took place, later visited wounded soldiers at Seyoun hospital and vowed to keep pushing to "uproot this malicious plant from our midst".
The state-run news agency said that one soldier and two civilians died in the attack. The agency did not say whether Halili was wounded.
A local security official put the death toll at eight, including two civilian passersby, and said Halili was injured.
Hadi supporters, backed mainly by United Arab Emirates (UAE) forces in the Saudi-led coalition, drove al Qaeda militants from the Hadramout provincial capital in a military offensive last month.
Islamist militants have exploited a civil war pitting supporters of the Saudi-backed Hadi and the Iran-allied Houthis to extend their control over areas in southern and eastern Yemen and recruit followers.
The growing militant threat has spurred U.N.-sponsored peace talks between Hadi's government and the Houthis now underway in Kuwait.