The Yemeni army on Saturday killed a top Al-Qaeda operative with Chechen links as it pressed an offensive against ’jihadist’ hideouts in the restive south, the defense ministry said.

The Yemeni army on Saturday killed a top Al-Qaeda operative with Chechen links as it pressed an offensive against 'jihadist' hideouts in the restive south, the defense ministry said.

Abu Islam al-Shishani was the second foreign 'jihadist' to be killed this week since the military launched its latest offensive on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

News of his death came as officials blamed AQAP for a suicide bombing at an intelligence post that wounded two guards, and after gunmen killed an army officer in Aden.

Shishani was killed "during military operations... against terrorist elements in Abyan" province, said a statement posted on defence ministry website 26sep.net.

He had reportedly fought against Russian forces in Chechnya before moving to Yemen to join AQAP, a merger of the network's Yemeni and Saudi branches.

On Friday, the defense minister announced that local 'jihadist' commander Abu Muslim al-Uzbeki had been killed in clashes, also in Abyan province.

A security official said Uzbeki travelled in 2011 from Uzbekistan to Yemen, where he was named an AQAP leader in Abyan.

The army's ground offensive backed by warplanes is aimed at clearing the "jihadists" from their remaining strongholds in villages and smaller towns of Abyan and neighboring Shabwa province.