The five militants were killed in the restive province of Abyan where suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen shot dead eight soldiers and set ablaze a military vehicle on Friday, a ministry website said.

Most of the assaults since June have been claimed by Al-Qaeda, which has stepped up attacks on security forces in recent months, marking a shift in tactics for the global militant group's Yemen arm, which previously focused on foreign targets.

Al Qaeda has said in statements released on Islamist websites that its attacks on Yemen government targets are due to enhanced US-Yemeni military cooperation against the group.

With US backing, Yemen is waging a crackdown on Al-Qaeda, which has long made use of the Arabian Peninsula state's remote mountains and deserts to hide and set up training camps.

In a separate development, state media said on Saturday that Al-Qaeda militant Ali Hussein Al-Tays, a former Guantanamo detainee, had surrendered to authorities.

In renewed unrest in northern Yemen, Shiite rebels killed two pro-government tribesmen, the Interior Ministry website reported late on Friday. There was no immediate comment on the incident from the rebels on their website.

Western powers fear that Al-Qaeda is exploiting instability in Yemen, which borders top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and sits next to a strategic shipping lane, to strengthen its operations and launch attacks both regionally and abroad.

The group claimed a failed bomb attempt on a US-bound passenger plane in December.

Impoverished Yemen, which is also struggling to curb a rising secessionist movement in the south, has faced international pressure to resolve its domestic conflicts in order to focus on quashing Al-Qaeda. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari and Mohamed Sudam; writing by Firouz Sedarat)

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Dutch sailor girl set to leave on solo world trip

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AP Photo LON823, LON822 By FILIPE BENTO= Associated Press= PORTIMAO, Portugal: A 14-year-old Dutch girl is due to set off on a controversial attempt to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, her representatives say.

Child protection authorities have questioned the wisdom of allowing a child to take on the risk of sailing the world's oceans alone, but Laura Dekker says she has the navigating skills and endurance of an adult.

Dekker's first challenge will be to find enough wind to set sail as the seas off southwestern Portugal were mirror-flat Saturday morning.