One soldier has been killed and five others wounded Wednesday in a car bomb blast near a military checkpoint east of the Yemeni capital Sana\'a, a local security official told AP. The anonymous official said the attack appears to have been carried out by Yemen’s al-Qaeda branch. Security in the country has been damaged due to a popular uprising that began last year. Its goal was to depose US-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled Yemen since its unification in 1990. Saleh is currently undergoing treatment in the US for injuries sustained in a bombing attack blast last year. His deputy is to be rubber-stamped as the country’s new leader in elections on February 21.