Suspected Al-Qaeda militants, including a suicide bomber, killed at least 10 Yemeni police Wednesday in attacks on security forces in the restive country.

Suspected Al-Qaeda militants, including a suicide bomber, killed at least 10 Yemeni police Wednesday in attacks on security forces in the restive country, officials said.

The wave of violence in the central town of Baida targeted a command center, a police post and an army checkpoint.

Nine police were killed in the suicide car bombing alone, an official at Al-Thawra hospital told AFP.

That attack, against the command center, was thought to have been carried out by a militant identified as Abu Dujana al-Lahji, said a security official in the region.

It came shortly after a meeting of tribal chiefs -- some of them with links to Al-Qaeda -- who decided to "respond to the increased presence” of Houthis in Baida, the official added.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has also vowed to fight the Houthis in “defense of Sunnis.”