A roadside bomb in Yemen's capital Sanaa killed three soldiers and injured two others during a security patrol early on Saturday (July 6), a security official said.

The official said the blast targeted a car in Sanaa's al-Hasaba district, a centre of opposition to former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh who was ousted early last year.

The official, who requested anonymity, said it was unknown who carried out the attack.

A security officer at the scene said one of the car's passengers had survived the attack.

Yemen is the poorest Arab state with a third of the population living on less than two dollars a day.

It faces a Shi'ite uprising in the north, an Islamist insurgency in the south and east, a southern separatist movement and splits in the military.