"Al Qaeda elements stationed in Dofas (Abyan province) attacked army units there using machine guns on Friday, killing two officers and four soldiers, and wounding nine others," a military official in the village told AFP.

The official identified the dead officers as Colonel Mohammed al-Salahi and Colonel Hilal Shamsan.

Medics at a military hospital in the strategic southern port city of Aden confirmed the toll.

A local official in Dofas, 15 kilometres south of Abyan's provincial capital of Zinjibar, said that five members of the network were also killed during the attack and four more were wounded.

Deputy Information Minister Abdo al-Janadi said last week that the United States had provided logistical support to the Yemen military's 25th Mechanised Brigade, which was until recently besieged by the militants in Zinjibar.

US commanders have repeatedly expressed concern that militants have been taking advantage of a protracted power vacuum in Sanaa to expand their operations.

Since January, protesters have been demanding the ouster of veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia since early June being treated for wounds sustained in a blast at his palace.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011