SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A suicide bomber assassinated Yemen’s army commander leading the fight against al-Qaida in the country’s south, the Defense Ministry said, just days after the military made major gains in its campaign to expel militants from their southern strongholds.

Maj. Gen. Salem Ali al-Quton was traveling in a three-car convoy in the southern city of Aden when the bomber threw himself on the general’s pickup truck and detonated his explosives. The commander was killed along with his driver and one of his bodyguards. Five passers-by, including two women, were seriously wounded, the ministry said.