A senior Yemeni police commander was killed in a car bomb attack in south Yemen on Friday, a security official said, the latest in a series of such attacks in Yemen's volatile south during nine months of mass protests against the president.
Two other occupants were also injured in the explosion of a booby-trapped car in the port city of Aden, the official told Reuters.
Southern Yemen has been the scene of clashes between the army and militants who have seized three towns during a popular movement to oust autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Neighbouring oil giant Saudi Arabia and the United States allege that spreading anarchy in Yemen is emboldening Al-Qaeda's regional wing, said by the US to be one of the global Islamist network's most aggressive branches.
Tens of thousands of refugees have fled to Aden and neighbouring provinces to escape the bloodshed and the army has struggled to regain territory lost to the militants.
Saleh, in power for 33 years, has refused to implement a Gulf-brokered power transfer plan, aggravating protests and bringing the impoverished country to the brink of civil war.
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