SAN`A, Yemen (AP)-- Suicide bombers tried to strike two oil facilities in Yemen with explosives-packed cars, but authorities foiled the attacks and at least two bombers were killed, officials said Friday.

An Interior Ministry official said the targets were an oil refinery in the northeast province of Mareb and an oil storage facility at the Dubba Port in Haramut province, scene of a 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg.

The official did not elaborate on the foiled attacks.

But another security official said two suicide bombers advanced toward the refinery in Mareb. One attacker engaged security guards protecting the facility before his car exploded, the official said. The second car blew up moments later, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and was the scene of the 2000 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors.