A blast in a booby-trapped car killed a British shipping surveyor in Yemen's southern port city of Aden today, local officials said.
A security source told Reuters he believed militants were behind the blast that killed the long-time resident of Aden, who was in his 60s, when he started his car.
The victim was an independent surveyor for a marine and insurance company in Yemen. A Western shipping source based in Aden said the Briton had just returned from surveying a tanker attacked in July by pirates off Yemen's coast.
"We tend to think that it was some kind of terrorist attack because he was well known," the security source said.
Attacks on foreigners are rare in the port city, which lies east of a strategic shipping lane that channels some 3 million barrels of oil daily.
Witnesses said the man's car exploded as soon as he turned on the engine, shattering windows in nearby buildings on Aden's Mualla Plaza.
"He started the car and it immediately exploded and he was engulfed in flames," a witness said.
One passer-by was critically injured in the blast which also damaged nearby buildings, a municipal official said. She said there was no clue as to who was behind the explosion.
"It's clear that there was some kind of explosive device placed in his car," she said.
Aden has been relatively quiet in recent months, even as mass protests demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh drag into their sixth month, erupting into sporadic bursts of violence.
The neighbouring Abyan province has been plunged into daily bloodshed since Islamist militants seized the city of Jaar in March and the provincial capital of Zinjibar in May.
The army, which says the militants are part of al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, launched an offensive to retake Zinjibar five days ago but has yet to regain the city.
A security belt was placed around Aden several weeks ago in the hope of preventing more militants from slipping into the strategic coastal city. Some 54,000 Abyan residents have sought refuge in Aden.
Agencies