Yemen’s army killed six suspected Al-Qaeda militants in a rocket attack on their hideout in the restive southern city of Zinjibar.

Yemen's army killed six suspected Al-Qaeda militants in a rocket attack on their hideout in the restive southern city of Zinjibar, an official said on Thursday.

"The army carried out heavy shelling using Katyusha rockets on a house in Zinjibar's east where Al-Qaeda militants were gathered to plot attacks on army units... killing six," said the official in the adjacent town of Jaar.

 Among the dead were a Saudi and an Algerian, said the official, adding the house in which they were hiding was completely demolished in the attack that took place late on Wednesday.

An army official meanwhile said that five soldiers were also wounded in Wednesday clashes in Zinjibar and were taken to a military hospital in the main southern city of Aden.

Nearly 270 Yemeni soldiers have been killed in the battles that began in May with militants from the Partisans of Sharia, the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgent group that took over most of Zinjibar, according to an army toll.

At least 400 extremists were also killed during the same battles, according to local officials in the region.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people who have been displaced by the conflict in Zinjibar, Abyan's capital, announced they will march on foot from Aden to Zinjibar to demand an end to the fighting, organizers said in a statement.

The "March of Dignity" will take place on Saturday, the statement said.

The extremist network has turned 11 months of political turmoil in the country to its advantage, using the popular revolt against President Ali Abdullah Saleh to bolster its presence in southern and eastern Yemen.