"Two soldiers were killed and seven others were wounded" when militants attacked the camp of the 25th Mechanised Brigade in the city of Zinjibar, a military source said.
The brigade has been attacked repeatedly since armed militants calling themselves "Partisans of Sharia" (Islamic Law) seized control of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, on May 29.
A local official said six gunmen were killed. "The bodies of six armed men were buried in a cemetery north of the town," he said, citing witnesses.
A medical source in Jaar, a village near Zinjibar, told AFP two wounded fighters were hospitalised and that one of them died of his injuries while the other was in critical condition.
At least 100 soldiers have been killed since the violence in Zinjibar erupted more than three weeks ago, and 260 have been wounded, a military source said earlier this week.
Officials say the militants are connected to Al-Qaeda.
But opponents of the country`s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh -- currently hospitalised in Saudi Arabia -- accuse his government of exaggerating a jihadist threat to ease Western pressure on his 33-year rule.
Yemen is the home of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), an affiliate of the slain Osama bin Laden`s militant network accused of anti-US plots, including an attempt to blow up a US-bound aircraft on Christmas Day 2009.
Saleh, a key US ally in the fight against AQAP, was wounded in a bomb blast at his palace mosque earlier this month and remains hospitalised in Saudi Arabia. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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