Four people were killed in Yemen Sunday including three children by suspected al-Qaeda militants, a day after three of the group’s leaders were killed in an air strike, AFP reported.

Four people were killed in Yemen Sunday including three children by suspected Al-Qaeda militants, a day after three of the group’s leaders were killed in an air strike, AFP reported.

The defense ministry said in a statement that "three local Al-Qaeda leaders were killed in a Yemeni air strike late Saturday,” while a security official told AFP the raid was conducted by a US drone.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the strike hit a moving vehicle carrying Al-Qaeda operatives in the province of Bayda, some 210 kilometres (130 miles) southeast of the capital Sanaa.

The ministry, however, maintained the government's insistence that only its aircraft carry out such operations on Yemeni soil.

The three children, including two siblings, were killed Sunday when a roadside bomb exploded in the eastern province of Hadramawt, a security official told AFP.

The official added that “the children were killed while walking to school… by an improvised time bomb”.

Earlier Sunday, one person was killed and at least five others were wounded, including two women, in an Al-Qaeda mortar attack on the southern town of Loder, a security official told AFP.

The victim was a member of a committee of armed residents fighting alongside the Yemeni army, the official added.