Blast kills 3 at Yemen army base

Two militants drove a car packed with explosives into a Yemeni army base in the south of the country yesterday, killing themselves and a soldier, the defence ministry said.
The attack targeted barracks of the republican guard forces in the province of al-Bayda at dawn, the ministry said on its website. It blamed al-Qaeda for the blast.
"The explosion was very loud and took place in Dar al-Nasr, which is a military site of the Republican Guard," said a website close to Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a general who defected from former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the early days of an uprising against him last year.
Militants linked to al-Qaeda have exploited a year of political upheaval in Yemen to strengthen their foothold there, particularly in the south, which is also home to rising secessionist sentiment.
Gunmen opened fire on a US security team as it trained Yemeni soldiers in the south of the country on Friday, the Pentagon and a security official said.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, wary of al-Qaeda entrenchment in Yemen, backed a Gulf-brokered plan under which Saleh handed power to his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was sworn in last month.