The Deputy Governor of Abyan province, Salih Al-Shamsi, says Al-Qaeda gunmen ambushed the military patrol Friday in Lawder in Abyan. He said the attackers fled and army units were chasing them in the area.

Lawder was the scene of heavy fighting between Yemen's military and Al-Qaeda elements this fall after a series of attacks on security forces in the town and surrounding area.

In November, a day after the state kicked off a regional soccer cup, a roadside bomb in Lawdar killed one soldier and wounded two others riding in a military vehicle.

Abyan’s capital Zinjibar was hosting the 20th Gulf Cup along with the neighboring coastal province of Aden and the government had put in place heavy security, deploying tens of thousands of troops to prevent any violence.

Yemen's government is battling a resurgent Al-Qaeda presence in the country that also drew deep international concern after the terror network's local offshoot claimed responsibility for an attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner in December, 2009.

Yemen, also trying to maintain a shaky truce with rebels in the north, 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.