A car bomb killed three people at the Iranian ambassador’s residence in Yemen yesterday.

The attack was claimed by al-Qaeda militants who oppose Iran and the Yemeni Shi’ite rebels who control the capital Sanaa.

Yesterday’s bombing, the second in Sanaa claimed by al-Qaeda in as many months, blew a large hole in the Iranian residence and sent rubble flying across the street of the well-guarded diplomatic quarter of the city, a Reuters witness said.

A Yemeni civilian and two soldiers were killed, a medical official said.

Seventeen people, mostly employees at a nearby oil ministry building, were wounded. The ambassador was unhurt, having left his residence for the embassy 10 minutes earlier, security officials said.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for the bombing on its Twitter account.

It said its fighters parked the car and left the scene, killing several Iranian employees and local guards. Security officials said it was a suicide attack and no Iranian staff were harmed. Iran, the Middle East’s major Shi’ite power, backs the Houthi rebel movement that seized control of Sanaa last September and has since taken large swathes of the country’s north and centre.