Armed militants killed four Yemeni soldiers in an attack on a checkpoint in the south of the country today, a day after 12 soldiers were killed in a suspected al-Qaeda ambush.
Six soldiers were also wounded in the attack in the southern province of Lahj, a local official said.
Meanwhile, eight soldiers were injured today when their vehicle came under fire in the southern city of Lawdar, the site of yesterday's suspected al-Qaeda ambush which killed 12 soldiers.
Yemen is trying to quell a resurgent wing of al-Qaeda that has stepped up attacks on Western and regional targets in the poor Arabian Peninsula state, a neighbour of oil giant Saudi Arabia.
Yemen also faces growing separatist militancy in the south while it tries to maintain a shaky truce with Shia rebels in the north.
The country is a focus of Western security concerns after two US-bound parcel bombs were intercepted in Britain and Dubai in October, a plot claimed by al-Qaeda's Yemen-based regional wing.