By Shukri Hussein 

ADEN, Yemen

Four people were killed in a bomb explosion in Yemen’s southern city of Aden on Tuesday, according to a local security official. 

A device exploded as a vehicle was passing near a security checkpoint in the city, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak to media. 

Five people were also injured in the attack, which targeted a military vehicle carrying senior security official Rami Muthana al-Sumaidi, who was seriously injured in the blast, the official said. 

A Yemeni medical source earlier said four soldiers had been injured in the attack, two of whom were in a serious condition.

Security forces cordoned off the scene of the attack following the explosion. 

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Aden is the temporary seat of the Yemeni government, which was forced to flee the capital Sanaa after Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country in 2014. 

Since then, Yemen has fallen into a deadly civil war that has devastated the country’s infrastructure, including health and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.