The blast in Aden wounded seven soldiers traveling in the lead vehicle of the ministerial motorcade, but Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser Ali, who was riding in the second car, was unharmed, a local official said.
International powers fear growing lawlessness in Yemen could embolden Al-Qaeda’s local wing and imperil strategic shipping routes.
Yemen Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi blamed the opposition for ongoing violence.
Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, he said the opposition movement’s refusal to accept the results of the 2006 presidential elections are to blame for the country’s current crisis — one that could escalate into a civil war.
He said the government is committed to democracy and reform, but the opposition has co-opted the protests as a way of trying to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh after he won a resounding victory in the 2006 elections.
His remarks came as thousands of people marched in Sanaa for a second day of protests.
“The people want to rebuild Yemen,” demonstrators shouted, waving Yemeni flags and carrying pictures of some of the 100 people killed in the latest violence.
“Peacefully, peacefully, we don’t want a civil war,” the protesters shouted, making peace signs with their fingers.
In Aden, officials said what they initially thought was a remote-controlled bomb now appeared to have been a suicide attack.
Investigators found the body of a 19-year-old inside a car which exploded and concluded he was the bomber.
A security official said the attack was consistent with Al-Qaeda’s tactics.
The attack came as Ali was heading to a hotel in Aden where he has been staying on a duty visit to the south.
A witness said the explosion “was big and flames erupted from the bomb-laden car,” adding that he saw wounded soldiers.
It was the second time in a month that the defense minister has narrowly escaped with his life.
In August, his convoy hit a land mine in the flash-point province of Abyan, where militants have seized several cities in the coastal province.
Rights campaigners, meanwhile, urged the UN Human Rights Council to order a probe into alleged human rights violations in Yemen, criticizing its inaction so far as a “clear failure.”
“The exceedingly weak response ... by the United Nations Human Rights Council is a clear failure by the international community to protect innocent civilians against violent attacks and brutal repression,” eight international NGOs said in a letter addressed to the president of the Human Rights Council.
According to figures obtained from medics, the opposition and tribal sources, violence in Sanaa has left 173 people dead in one week.
The letter, signed by NGOs including Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization Against Torture said current measures being discussed by the rights body were “undecisive.”
They instead called for the Human Rights Council to heed the advice of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and set up an independent commission of inquiry mandated to investigate “allegations of violations of human rights and incidents which resulted in heavy loss of life and injuries.”
“The Human Rights Council is intended to be the preeminent international body mandated to provide protection for victims of rights violations around the world,” the campaigners said.
“In the case of Yemen, the Council increasingly appears to instead be adopting a weaker approach to the protection of victims than the other relevant international bodies.
“This failure of political will among states, including the United States, members of the European Union and League of Arab States, to respond appropriately through the Human Rights Council is unacceptable,” they added.
