A U.S. drone strike killed at least two suspected al-Qaida militants on Sunday in Yemen's northeastern province of al-Jawf, an interior ministry official told Xinhua.

The strike targeted the two militants while they were on a pick- up vehicle in the desert district of Khab Washaf.

The official identified the targeted men as Saleh Hassan and Saleh Jaradan without providing further details.

An al-Qaida spokesman told Xinhua that the dead included children, but refused to elaborate further.

Al-Jawf, about 200 km northeast of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, is closed to Saudi Arabia's southern borders.

On Jan. 22, a similar airstrike hit a group of al-Qaida suspects in al-Jawf, killing at least three operatives, according to local officials.

Hundreds of al-Qaida members have been killed in airstrikes since Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was sworn in in February 2012, after a year-long unrest weakened the control of the central government and allowed the militants to take over swaths of territory in the south.

The Yemeni government managed to recapture the cities in May 2012. Endi

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