Al Qaeda militants kill four Yemeni soldiers

The attack also wounded two other soldiers, before the Al Qaeda militants set fire to an army vehicle and fled the scene, the official said.

The army sent reinforcements and launched a hunt for the assailants in the surrounding mountains, said the official, cited by the official Saba news agency.

The province of Baida is a stronghold of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of the jihadist network.

AQAP is active across several parts of Yemen, having taken advantage of a collapse of central authority during a 2011 uprising that ousted veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh.