A suspected al Qaeda suicide bomber killed two militiamen on Monday at a checkpoint in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, already beset by violence, a security source said.
The bomber approached the militiamen as they were inspecting cars at a large intersection in the Mansoura district and detonated an explosive vest, killing the guards and himself, the source said.
Aden is the nominal seat of Yemen's embattled government, which Gulf Arab countries launched a military intervention to protect against the Iran-allied Houthi group in late March.
Forces from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia helped Aden's militias to oust the Houthis and their allies from the city in July, but have struggled to enforce order and clamp down on militant groups, including al Qaeda's Arabian wing, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government had returned from exile in Saudi Arabia to start operating in Aden, but mostly went back to Riyadh after Islamic State mounted a wave of attacks on the government and allied Gulf forces three weeks ago.