A car bomb has exploded at Yemen's defence ministry building in the capital Sanaa causing deaths and injuries, SIA reports citing BBC news.
Smoke was seen rising from the complex in Bab al-Yaman district, at the entrance to the old city.
Witnesses heard gunshots as an ambulance rushed to the scene.
Yemeni security forces are fighting regional rebels and al-Qaeda militants, while struggling to control lawlessness and divisions within the army.
"The attack took place shortly after working hours started at the ministry when a suicide bomber drove a car into the gate," a ministry source said, quoted by Reuters.
"The explosion was very violent, the whole place shook because of it and plumes of smoke rose from the building," an eyewitness told the agency.
Officials said a second car followed whose occupants opened fire at the complex.
The incident follows a series of hit-and-run attacks on officials by militants on motorbikes, blamed on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The country has been going through a painful transition since President Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced from office in 2011.
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