Armed tribesmen attacked electricity transferring poles in Yemen's northeast restive province of Marib on Monday, triggering a blackout in the country's major provinces, including the capital Sanaa, state media reported.

"Several electricity transferring poles of the country's main power station in Marib were attacked by armed tribesmen today, causing a widespread power outage in Sanaa and all other provinces, " the state-run 26sep.net quoted an official as saying.

The official did not provide details on the motivation behind the attack, but said that engineers were sent to fix the damaged electricity poles.

Rocked by nationwide anti-government protests, Yemen's security and public facilities were undermined by armed tribes in the north and al-Qaida militants in eastern and southern provinces.

The country's electricity supplies have been damaged for several times by similar attacks since the eruption of the 11- month-old protests against the 33-year rule of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh.