Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed five south Yemen separatists in Abyan province on Monday, in the terror group's biggest attack in the region for months, a secessionist security official said.

An audio recording purporting to be from the Islamist militant group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility

Fourteen soldiers were killed on Tuesday in a suicide attack by suspected Islamist extremists in southern Yemen, a senior military official said.

Suspected US drones fired missiles at al Qaeda targets in two separate attacks in Yemen on Monday, residents said, extending several days of US strikes against the militants.

Al-Qaeda has confirmed that top leader Abu Khayr al-Masri, believed to be the organisation's number two, was killed in an air strike by the US-led coalition in Syria.

Four suspected Al-Qaeda members were killed in drone strikes in central Yemen likely carried out by US forces, a security source said on Sunday.

A drone strike, likely carried out by US forces, has killed three suspected Al-Qaeda members in southern Yemen, local security sources said on Wednesday.

A drone strike has killed two suspected members of Al-Qaeda in central Yemen, a local government official said on Friday.

A presumed US drone strike in southern Yemen killed three Al-Qaeda suspects on Tuesday, a security official and a tribal source said.

Yemeni army forces backed by Arab coalition aircraft killed about 40 suspected al Qaeda fighters on Sunday as they fought their way into two militant strongholds in eastern Yemen, a local official and residents said.

Yemen foiled an attack by al Qaeda militants that planned to target local administrative headquarters in the city of Mukalla the UAE state news agency WAM said on Thursday, after security forces found a car laden with explosives that an al Qaeda suspect was planning to blow up.

A suspected US drone strike killed a local leader in Al Qaeda and five of his aides in southern Yemen, as Yemeni and Emirati troops pressed their offensive against the militant group.