Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed 12 Yemeni soldiers and a civilian on Thursday in a southern province where troops have been battling the extremists since late April, a security official said.

Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed 12 Yemeni soldiers and a civilian on Thursday in a southern province where troops have been battling the extremists since late April, a security official said.

The militants attacked a checkpoint near the Shabwa province village of Bayhan with automatic rifles, also wounding a number of soldiers, the official said.

The army has been engaged in a major ground offensive against Al-Qaeda in Shabwa and neighboring Abyan province in a bid to expel it from smaller towns and villages that escaped a previous sweep in 2012.