Yemeni officials say a car bomb targeting the motorcade of the country's defense minister has killed at least 13 people, but the minister escaped unharmed.

The security officials say the blast hit the minister's convoy Tuesday as he was traveling through the capital to attend a Cabinet meeting.

The say the minister, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, was unhurt but that eight of his security guards were killed. The other five dead were civilian bystanders.

No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack, but it bore the hallmarks of the al-Qaida and came a day after Yemeni authorities announced the death of al-Qaida in Yemen's No. 2 leader in an apparent U.S. airstrike.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.