Two Yemeni soldiers and a suspected Al-Qaeda gunman have been killed in a clash following an ambush in the southern province of Shabwa, security and tribal sources said on Friday.

Two Yemeni soldiers and a suspected Al-Qaeda gunman have been killed in a clash following an ambush in the southern province of Shabwa, security and tribal sources said on Friday.

The gunmen ambushed an army vehicle late Thursday on the main road in Al-Aram, a security official said, adding that the soldiers fired back at the assailants.

He said two soldiers were killed in the confrontation and another was wounded.
A tribal source, meanwhile, said that one attacker was shot dead in the clash and four were wounded.

In late April, the army launched a ground offensive against Al-Qaeda in Shabwa and nearby Abyan province.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, is active across several parts of Yemen, taking advantage of a collapse of central authority during a 2011 uprising that ousted veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

In other violence, a gunman on a motorbike shot dead two men late Thursday in the port city of Aden, a police official said.

The assailant first opened fire at Hayak Abdulwassei in Mansura district, killing him instantly. He then chased another man, Emad al-Zaydi, in the same street and shot him dead, the official said.

The unidentified attacker managed to escape, the official said, and the motives for the attack remain unknown.

Al-Qaeda militants are blamed for frequent attacks using motorbikes in which security personnel are targeted.