7 killed, 10 injured in powerful blast outside presidential residence in Aden

ADEN – Seven people were killed and 10 others injured when a suicide car bomb detonated outside Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Rabbu Hadi's residence in the southern city of Aden on Thursday, a local official and eyewitnesses said.

"A suicide car bomb targeted a security checkpoint about 500 meters (yards) from the Maashiq palace, and there were casualties," the official told Reuters by telephone.

Another official said several people were killed and wounded in the attack, the latest in a series of deadly attacks by militants against government and security targets.

Hadi is based in Aden, Yemen's second largest city, where his embattled government is trying to project its authority after their loyalists backed by Arab forces seized it in July.

They have been battling the Iran-allied Houthi militia and loyalists of the country's former leader who are based in the capital Sanaa in a war that has raged for nine months and in which some 6,000 people have been killed. –Reuters