The Yemeni air force bombarded al- Qaida camps after gunmen affiliated to the group ambushed a military patrol car, killing one soldier and wounding two others in a southern province on Saturday, Xinhua reported according to state media and officials.
The al-Qaida ambushed a military patrol car en route to Modiya district in Abyan province, some 150 km northeast of the provincial capital Zinjibar, the ruling party's news website almotamar.net quoted a security source as saying.
"The patrol car was heading to a large military convoy Saturday morning to besiege an area in Modiya after the terrorist group gunned down the security head of Modiya, Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed al-Baham two days ago," a security official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
"It's believed that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has established new remote camps in the district," he added.
According to the almotamar.net, the air force later bombed two areas of al-Qaida's strongholds in Salama and AShaeeb Abid areas of Modiya district in response to the morning ambush.
The portal did not reveal whether the air strikes resulted in casualties of the terrorist groups. Security officials in Abyan and in Sanaa declined to comment.
The ambush came six days after the AQAP declared the establishment of an army of 12,000 fighters in south Yemen to wage a "holy war" against the country's security services and foreign interests.
Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida network leader Osama bin Laden, stepped up military operations including air raids on the Yemen-based al-Qaida affiliations after AQAP claimed credit for a failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. plane bound for Detroit last December.