Gunmen severely wounded an army colonel from Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi’s extended family in the restive south on Saturday in an attack blamed by a security official on Al-Qaeda.

Gunmen severely wounded an army colonel from Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi's extended family in the restive south on Saturday in an attack blamed by a security official on Al-Qaeda.

"Colonel Ali Nasser Dambur was hit by four bullets fired by one of two people on a motorbike in Seyun" in Hadramawt province, the official said.

He said the officer was hit in the head and chest and was evacuated by helicopter to the capital Sanaa, adding that the attack bore all the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda.

Dambur had been behind the wheel of his car at the time of the attack which came as he slowed down on approach to an army checkpoint.

The colonel was a supplies officer for an army unit in the southeast.

On Wednesday, Hadi vowed to eradicate terrorism in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation where the security forces come under regular attack from militants.

"The blood (of victims) will not be in vain," Hadi said in a televised speech.

"Our people remain vigilant in the face of those crimes and will soon inflict defeat on them," he added of spectacular September 20 attacks on three police and army positions in Shabwa province that claimed the lives of at least 56 security personnel.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants remain active in Shabwa and adjacent provinces despite an army offensive last year in which troops retook a number of towns.