The Yemeni Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that 11 policemen, including a senior officer, were killed by al-Qaida militants in the flashpoint southern province of Abyan.

"Colonel Najm al-Deen al-Haifi, the commander of the Central Security in Abyan, and ten other policemen were killed during an ambush by al-Qaida militants targeted a military patrol late on Tuesday evening in Zinjibar city, the provincial capital of Abyan, " the ministry said.

It also said that the al-Qaida militants fired two rocket- propelled grenades followed by heavy artilleries shootings at the commander of the Central Security forces in Abyan, adding that fierce clashes were still going on in different areas of al-Qaida- seized Zinjibar city.

Earlier the day, local army officers told Xinhua that warplanes of the Yemeni air forces carried out several airstrikes against al- Qaida targets in various areas of the southern province of Abyan, leaving four al-Qaida fighters killed and seven others injured.

Abyan, some 480 km south of the capital Sanaa, has become almost under control of resurgent al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula since the militants seized Abyan's provincial capital city of Zinjibar late in May.