SANAA, July 22 Gunmen killed at least five Yemeni soldiers on Thursday in a suspected Al Qaeda ambush of a military convoy in the south, the third assault on state targets in five weeks blamed on the group's resurgent regional arm.

Al Qaeda in Yemen previously focussed on high-impact strikes against western and Saudi targets, but appears now to be targeting government forces in response to enhanced Yemen-US security coordination and a government crackdown.

“There was an ambush targeting the soldiers' vehicle and five were killed and a sixth was wounded. There is suspicion that Al Qaeda was behind the operation,” an official in the southern province of Shabwa told Reuters.

The attackers then seized the soldiers' vehicle and weapons before fleeing into nearby hills, another official said. The defence ministry blamed the attack on “terrorists”, using language it typically reserves to refer to Al Qaeda.

Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf Research Centre, said he expected attacks on both western targets in Yemen and local security forces to continue.—Reuters