SANAA: Yemeni forces killed 34 suspected Al-Qaeda members, including senior leaders, in a dawn raid Thursday in a remote mountainous region of Yemen's Shabwa province, a security source said.

"The raid was carried out as dozens of members of Al-Qaeda were meeting in Wadi Rafadh," said the source, referring to a rugged location about 650 kilometres (400 miles) east of the Yemeni capital.

The head of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Nasser al-Wahishi and his deputy, Saeed al-Saudi Shahrani, were present at the meeting, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He added that "members of the group's leadership, including Saad al-Fathani and Mohammad Ahmed Saleh al-Omir, were among those killed."

The source was unable to say what had happened to Wahishi or his deputy, but he indicated that Omir had recently appeared in a video made of a public meeting in southern Abyan province which was later screened by Al-Jazeera television.

"Saudis and Iranians at the Wadi Rafadh meeting were also among the dead," said the source, without going into detail.

A second security source told AFP that the raid had been launched after locals had tipped the authorities off about the meeting in Wadi Rafadh.

The Yemeni defence ministry cited a source in the High Security Council as confirming Thursday's raid in Shabwa but gave no death toll.

"Security forces will continue to hunt for terrorists... and thwart their criminal plans," the defence ministry quoted the source as saying.

A Yemeni official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that those attending the meeting "planned to launch terrorist attacks against economic installations in Yemen, in retaliation for Yemeni strikes launched last week."

A December 17 Yemeni air strike on one of the group's training camps in Abyan province killed 34 Al-Qaeda members, according to the Yemeni government.

A local official and a tribal source said that 49 civilians, including 23 women and 17 children, were among those killed in that strike.

On the same day, four members of Al-Qaeda were killed in Abhar, about 35 kilometres north of Sanaa, in what authorities presented as part of preventative operations against Al-Qaeda members planning attacks.

The Yemeni defence ministry said on Thursday that 29 Al-Qaeda members had been arrested in Yemen since the December 17 strike, revising an earlier figure of 30.

Deputy Prime Minister for Defence and Security Rashid al-Alimi raised the issue in parliament on Wednesday, saying the "fight against terrorism and the eradication of extremism is a national emergency," according to the official Saba news agency.

Thursday's strike brings the Yemeni government's tally of Al-Qaeda members killed over the past eight days to 68.

The New York Times reported that US President Barack Obama approved firepower, intelligence and other support for Yemen's efforts against Al-Qaeda.

Yemen, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Ladin's ancestral homeland, has witnessed a number of attacks in recent years against targets including diplomatic missions, oil installations and foreign tourists.

Many attacks have been claimed by Al-Qaeda.