A roadside bomb exploded in a Shiite crowded village market in northern Yemen on Wednesday, killing at least three people and injuring 10 others, witnesses and medics said.

Two victims were diving on a motorbike when the bomb ripped through the Uthman Mujali souk in a village of the northern province of Saada, about 242 km north of the capital Sanaa, said witnesses.

The scene of the early morning blast was cordoned off by the armed militiamen of the Shiite Houthi group which controls most parts of Saada after they reached a truce with the central government in Sanaa in early 2010 following a six-year sporadic war against the Yemeni army.

A doctor at Salam hospital in Saada's capital city confirmed to Xinhua about the casualties.

Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry also reported on its website the attack, saying the blast was caused by a suicide bombing and the bomber himself, driving a bike, was also killed. But it said only one passerby was killed alongside.

Clashes between the Shiite group and Sunni sect were frequent in Saada province since the Shiite Houthi rebels stormed a Sunni- held mosque in the area in September last year.

The tension has escalated after the central government's control was weakened by a year of protests against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as the well-armed Shiite group has been trying to take advantage of the security vacuum to expand their control over the country's northern regions.

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who took office in February last year under a UN-backed power transfer deal that eased Saleh out of power, has promised to settle disputes between all political factions through an ongoing national dialogue which started in March.