Shabwani was killed on Tuesday in heavy fighting that continued into Wednesday between the army and suspected al Qaeda militants near Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, east of the main southern city Aden, the source said.

The official Saba news agency had said earlier that "two prominent members of the al Qaeda leadership were killed in Abyan province," naming them as Ayad al-Shabwani and Awad Mohammed Saleh al-Shabwani.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011