Al Qaida kills 15 soldiers in Yemen

"The suicide car bombing attack was carried out simultaneously with heavy machine gunfire by the militants on the 111th Brigade's command centre in the district of Ahwar in Abyan province," the official told Xinhua over phone.

He said that the car bomb completely destroyed the building of the command centre where senior military officers work, killing at least 15 soldiers and injuring more than 18 others.

Following the suicide attack, the official said, the militants invaded the military base from different directions killing an unidentified number of soldiers and injuring others during the exchange of fire which went on for three hours.

The fresh suicide bombing occurred in the wake of a string of attacks on a security camp and a military checkpoint of the Brigade 26 Mika in Al Bayda province late Thursday, that claimed the lives of at least eight soldiers and injured dozens of others.

The attacks took place amid the week-long celebrations of Eid al-Adha that started Tuesday.

The Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that is based in Yemen's southern region, repeatedly said that its attacks were in revenge for joint US-Yemeni operations including drone strikes against the group.

The drone strikes have increased since August after the US temporarily closed its embassy in Sanaa due to security threats. The Yemeni government said more than 40 suspected AQAP fighters were killed in the strikes.