About three suspected al-Qaida militants were killed when a U.S. drone strike bombed three cars in Yemen's southeastern province of Shabwa on Sunday night, a military official told Xinhua.

"A four-wheel drive vehicle was struck by missiles fired from a U.S. drone in the tribal area of Haban in Shabwa province, killing three al-Qaida militants at the scene," the Yemeni military source said on condition of anonymity.

The military official said that all the three dead militants were known for their links to the latest terror attacks that struck southern Yemeni provinces.

Residents told Xinhua that vehicle was completely destroyed in the area and no one escaped from the American attack.

On Saturday, a U.S. drone attack killed two members of the al-Qaida group in their vehicle in Marib province east of the Yemen's capital Sanaa.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot, also known as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on Yemen's army and government institutions.

It took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence in Yemen's southern regions.

The fragile security situation in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when a war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led coalition.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians.

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