A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the home of the security chief of the Yemeni province of Lahej on Wednesday night, killing himself and wounding the official and six other people, residents and a security official said.

They said the security chief, Brigadier General Adel al-Halemi, was in stable condition after the attack in the al-Mindara district in the eastern part of the city of Aden.

It was the latest in a string of attacks in the southern port city, where the Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government are trying to oversee a campaign to dislodge the Iran-allied Houthis from the northern half of the country they seized in 2014.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Yemeni officials blame former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an ally of the Houthis, for the attacks in Aden, saying he operates secret cells aimed at undermining security in the city.

Hadi had appointed Halemi in the past months to run security in the lawless province located north of Aden, where the Islamist militant group al Qaeda had been operating for some time.

Residents described a huge blast outside Halemi's home that could be heard several kilometrs away. At least one of Halemi's security entourage was in a critical condition from the explosion, a local official told Reuters by telephone.

On Friday, six people were killed in a suicide car bombing on a police checkpoint in Aden. On Thursday, militants carried out a suicide car bombing outside Hadi's residence in Aden that killed seven people.

The Islamist militant Islamic State claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Reuters