At least seven people were killed Wednesday in a car bomb blast targeting the convoy of a security official in the southern Yemeni government-controlled city of Aden, security sources said.

The blast "targeted the convoy of the Lahij governorate security director, Saleh al-Sayed, in the Khor Maksar neighbourhood of central Aden", a source told AFP.

At least four soldiers and three civilians were killed in the blast, added the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A Yemeni journalist was killed earlier in June when a bomb detonated in his car in Aden.

Yemen has been gripped by war since 2014, when Iran-backed Huthi rebels overran the capital Sanaa, prompting the government to flee to Aden and then into exile in Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led military intervention launched in 2015 has allowed the government to recover Aden and much of the south.

But the fighting has left hundreds of thousands of dead and millions more displaced in what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.