Yemen’s air force on Thursday struck concentrations of suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the southern Shabwah province, a local official told media outlets.

Yemen's air force on Thursday struck concentrations of suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the southern Shabwah province, a local official told media outlets.

The air force, the official said, had struck militant concentrations in the Al-Qaeda-controlled Jebel Raidan region.

He added that tribal leaders in the southern province had continued to negotiate with Al-Qaeda in an effort to secure the release of ten Yemeni troops captured earlier.

Yemen has remained in a state of turmoil since a popular uprising in 2011 led to the ouster of ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh one year later.

Al-Qaeda terrorist organization is deployed in Yemen's southern provinces, where its gunmen plot for terrorist attacks against civilians and officials.

In recent months, Ansarullah movement, also dubbed as Houthis, has liberated the capital Sanaa from operatives of al-Qaeda last September, and worked to restore security and stability in the attack-hit areas.

The powerful group issued on Friday the Constitutional Declaration, in a bid to avoid the power vacuum in the country following the resignation of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his prime minister.