The battles raged around Al-Wahda stadium on the outskirts of Zinjibar, most of which has fallen into the grips of the Islamists a month ago.
"A total of 30 soldiers and 14 Al-Qaeda militants" were killed in the confrontation, a military source said.
According to the source the violence erupted when "dozens of gunmen attacked the stadium where troops from the 25th Mechanised Brigade were deployed."
The gunmen took control of the stadium, prompting the "air force to go into action," and attack the Islamists, the source said.
The military source said losing the stadium would have deprived the troops of a strategic location since weapons were airlifted by helicopter to the brigade stationed in the arena.
An earlier toll said 16 soldiers, including a colonel, had been killed in the fighting while a medical official reported two militants dead.
The four civilians died in a strike on their fleeing bus.
They were travelling in a convoy of vehicles that had taken shelter near the stadium where the fighting was taking place when Yemeni forces launched an air strike, medics and witnesses said.
Twelve other civilians were wounded.
Wednesday`s violence has raised the army death toll to 130 troops killed since the militants, who call themselves Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law), seized control of most of Zinjibar on May 29.
The Sanaa government says they are allied with Al-Qaeda but the opposition accuses the government of playing up a jihadist threat in a desperate attempt to keep embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh in power.
Yemen`s official Saba news agency reported on Monday that the security services had thwarted an Al-Qaeda plot to attack vital installations in Aden and had arrested six suspects.
The country is the home of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, an affiliate of the global network accused of anti-US plots, including an attempt to blow up a US-bound aircraft on Christmas Day 2009. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
