Al-Qaeda militants, including three suicide bombers who blew up vehicles, killed at least 13 Yemeni government troops outside the southeastern port city of Mukalla on Thursday, a military official said.

Several soldiers were also wounded in the attack on the eastern outskirts of the Hadramawt provincial capital, which the army recaptured from Al-Qaeda last month, ending a year of jihadist rule, the official said.

One suicide bomber rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into the gate of a base in the Khalf district, followed immediately by a second who blew up a car in the centre of the camp, the official said.

Al-Qaeda militants clashed with soldiers outside the base immediately after the bombings. 

A third suicide bomber targeted the nearby residence of the commander of Hadramawt's second military region, General Faraj Salmeen, but he escaped unharmed, the official said.

The commander of the province's first military region, General Abdulrahman al-Haleeli, survived a suicide bombing against his convoy on Wednesday that killed four of his guards.

Source: AFP