A Yemeni air strike killed four civilians and wounded 12 near the militant-held southern city of Zinjibar on Wednesday as fighting on the ground left 16 soldiers and at least two militants dead.

The civilians were travelling in a convoy of vehicles that had left Zinjibar for the main southern city of Aden but was forced to stop when fighting erupted between government troops and the militants, witnesses said.

The casualties were taken to the Al-Naqib and Al-Wali hospitals in Aden, where medics confirmed the toll.

A colonel was among the 16 soldiers killed on the front line between the army and the militants, a military source said.

Two militants were killed and seven wounded, a doctor at the Al-Razi hospital in the militant-held village of Jaar, outside Zinjibar, told AFP.

More than 100 troops have been killed since the militants who call themselves Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) seized control of most of Zinjibar on May 29.

The Sanaa government says they are allied with Al-Qaeda but the opposition accuses the government of playing up a jihadist threat in a desperate attempt to keep embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh in power.

Fear has mounted of a spillover of the violence to the strategic port of Aden where an officer was killed on Tuesday evening when his car was booby-trapped, a police officer said.

"Colonel Khaled al-Habishi, commander of a battalion of the army's 31st Brigade, was killed by a bomb planted on his car," the officer said, asking not be identified.

He was the second officer to be killed in Aden in a fortnight. A colonel was killed in a similar bombing on June 13.

Yemen's official Saba news agency reported on Monday that the security services had thwarted an Al-Qaeda plot to attack vital installations in Aden and had arrested six suspects.

The country is the home of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, an affiliate of the global network accused of anti-US plots, including an attempt to blow up a US-bound aircraft on Christmas Day 2009.

President Saleh had been a key US ally the US "war on terror" but has faced mass protests against his rule since January.

He is currently receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia for blast wounds he sustained in bomb attack inside the presidential palace.

Protesters have been camped out in the capital Sanaa demanding the formation of an interim ruling council to prevent his return to power.

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