Six Yemeni soldiers were killed and four others wounded in a terrorist ambush attack in the southeastern province of Shabwa on Monday evening, a military official told Xinhua.

"A terrorist group carried out an attack on an army patrol in the Mayfaa district in Shabwa. As a result six soldiers were killed and four others wounded at the scene," the local military official said on condition of anonymity.

The attackers fled shortly after the armed attack, the military source said.

A government source confirmed to Xinhua saying that a senior military intelligence officer was wounded in the exchange of fire, adding no one of the well-armed assailants was hurt in the attack.

No group has claimed responsibility so far for the ambush attack and Yemeni security authorities have yet to comment.

Militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot were blamed by the country's government for a series of assassinations and armed attacks, mostly in the country's southern regions.

The al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which emerged in January 2009, is considered the most strategic threat to the Yemeni government and neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.