Yemeni forces backed by US intelligence have struck a series of suspected al-Qaida hideouts, including a meeting of senior leaders, killing at least 30 militants, the government said.
The air strikes on Christmas Eve were Yemen's second such assault on al-Qaida in a week, at a time when the US has dramatically increased aid to eliminate the expanding presence of the terror group.
Washington fears al-Qaida could turn fragmented, unstable Yemen into a new Afghanistan-like safe haven in a highly strategic location on the border with oil-rich US-ally Saudi Arabia.
The Pentagon recently confirmed it is has poured nearly $70m (£44m) in military aid to Yemen this year – compared to none in 2008.
The US military has also boosted its counterterrorism training for Yemeni forces, and is providing more intelligence, which may include surveillance by unmanned drones, according to US officials and analysts.
Yemen's deputy defence minister, Rashad al-Alaimy, told parliament the latest strikes were carried out "using intelligence aid from Saudi Arabia and the US".
The strikes killed three important leadership members, al-Alaimy said, but he did not identify them.
Yemeni officials refused to comment on the main target: a gathering of senior al-Qaida figures in Rafd, a remote mountain valley in eastern Shabwa province, a region where militants have been given refuge with tribes discontent with the Sana'a government.
A Rafd resident said a mid-level figure in al-Qaida's Yemen branch, Mohammed Ahmed Saleh Omair, was among those killed. The resident, Awad al-Daghary, told the Associated Press that bearded al-Qaida fighters brought the bodies of Omair and three others killed in the strike to al-Daghary's tribe for burial. Two of the bodies were of members of the tribe who had run off to join al-Qaida, he said.
Further strikes targeted al-Qaida hideouts on the border of Shabwa and Abyan province, the supreme security committee said, adding that 30 al-Qaida militants were killed. Yemeni security officials refused to give details.
In a separate operation, 25 suspected al-Qaida members were arrested on Wednesday in Sana'a after police set up checkpoints, the interior ministry said..
Al-Alaimy said the operations were carried out after security officials received tip offs about al-Qaida plans to carry out suicide attacks in the capital Sana'a against the British embassy and foreign schools.
The latest strikes come a week after ground and air forces attacked what authorities said was an al-Qaida training camp in Mahsad in the southern province of Abyan, the largest assault on al-Qaida in years.
Al-Alaimy told parliament that 23 militants were killed, including Yemenis, Saudis, Egyptians and Pakistanis. Witnesses, however, put the number killed at more than 60 in the heaviest strike but that the dead included mostly civilians.
The US has been pressing Yemen for well over a year to take tougher action against al-Qaida, which has steadily been building its presence in the country.