SANAA: An air strike in southern Yemen has killed at least three suspected Al-Qaeda militants, the defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

A security official said the late Saturday raid was conducted by a US drone against a moving vehicle carrying Al-Qaeda operatives in the province of Bayda, some 210 kilometres (130 miles) southeast of the capital Sanaa.

The defence ministry however maintained the Yemeni government's routine insistence that only its aircraft carry out such operations on its soil.

The official statement released on the ministry's website said that the three militants killed were "local Al-Qaeda leaders."