MARIB: Al-Qaeda militants killed at least 20 Yemeni soldiers on Saturday when they ambushed their convoy in the south of the war-torn country, a military source said.

Al-Qaeda swiftly denied it was behind the killings.

“Armed members of Al-Qaeda ambushed a group of young soldiers traveling in three civilian vehicles in the province of Abyan, killing at least 20 of them,” said the source.

The assailants ordered the soldiers to get out of the vehicles and gunned them down early in the morning in the town of Ahwar, the source told AFP.

The soldiers were young recruits who were being deployed as part of the internationally recognized government’s efforts to restore security to areas under its control.

They had been traveling to a military camp in Hadramawt, the neighboring province whose capital has been held by Al-Qaeda since April last year.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), also known as Ansar Al-Sharia, in an online statement denied it was involved in the attack.

“We in Ansar Al-Sharia deny any connection to the murder incident that took place on Saturday morning in the Ahwar area,” it said, blaming a local tribal leader for the killings instead.

Meanwhile, in the region of Nahm, northeast of Sanaa, clashes on Saturday killed three loyalists and four rebel fighters, said another military source.