Sanaa, Oct 11 (IANS): Three Yemeni policemen were killed and three others injured when a roadside bomb hit their patrol in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout Saturday, a provincial source said.

"A unit of the 135th Armoured Brigade was on routine patrol in Shibam town in Hadramout province at around 10 a.m., but a bomb was detonated through a remote-controlled device when their patrolling vehicle was passing the area," a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The bomb was planted along a road near their military checkpoint and detonated by a remote-controlled device, destroying the patrolling car and killing three policemen on the spot, he said.

On Thursday, a suspected Al Qaeda suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden vehicle into a military base in the coastal city of Mukalla, Hadramout's provincial capital, killing about 20 soldiers and injuring several others.

The same day, the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for a bomb attack against Houthi Shia rebels that killed at least 47 people in Yemen's capital Sanaa.

Yemeni military officials have blamed militants of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda offshoot for a series of assassinations and armed attacks, mostly in the country's southern regions.

The AQAP, also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009 and is considered one of the greatest threats to the Yemeni government and neighbouring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.