Yemeni forces hit back at Al-Qaeda insurgents, causing heavy losses on Tuesday after an attack by militants killed seven soldiers and wounded 30 others, civilian and military officials said.

The clashes happened south of Zinjibar, capital of the restive southern province of Abyan, a senior officer told AFP.

"Six soldiers and an officer were killed and 30 others wounded when Al-Qaeda militants attacked the camp of the 201st Brigade in Dofes," the officer said.

The attackers had used the cover of a wooded area around the base to approach a unit of the brigade and opened fire with rocket-launchers and automatic weapons.

An official from a military hospital that took in the casualties confirmed the toll.

A local official, Salem Said, said the army had retaliated against Al-Qaeda positions south of Zinjibar.

"Dozens of dead and wounded Al-Qaeda fighters were taken to al-Razi hospital in Jaar," an insurgent-held village in Abyan province, he added.

He said the dead included a Saudi called Abu Bakr, described as the Dofes head of Al-Qaeda.

A doctor at the hospital told AFP it had taken in 35 killed and 40 wounded.

On Monday, government warplanes killed six presumed Al-Qaeda fighters in Arkub, another village in Abyan province, that they had seized a day earlier.

Tribesmen siding with government forces are battling Islamist militants in Abyan, mainly in Zinjibar, where militants have besieged the army's 25th Mechanised Brigade base since May.

The international community has expressed fears that the power vacuum in the impoverished country could play into the hands of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the local branch of the network.

AQAP was behind several attacks, including the failed Christmas Day attempt to blow a US airliner over Detroit in 2009.

Yemen has been gripped by political turmoil since an uprising against the 33-year-old rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, now recovering from bomb blast wounds, erupted in January.

Hundreds have died in battles between security forces and protesters, and between security forces and Al-Qaeda fighters.

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