Government security officials in Yemen have claimed that a US drone strike killed two al Qaeda militants. If confirmed, it would be the third American drone strike to hit Yemen in less than a week.

The strike targeted a house in the eastern province of Marib on Sunday, destroying a weapons cache and killing two militants and wounding three others.

Witnesses said that the strike was carried out by an unmanned aircraft, while Yemen's Defense Ministry confirmed that the attack came from a drone, without saying who was responsible. Unnamed Yemeni army officials told the Associated Press that Washington was behind the drone strike.

According to the Yemeni Defense Ministry's new website, the strike destroyed "a store of weapons and various explosives that had been used to blow up government facilities and private and public institutions."

Checkpoint attacked

A few hours later, al Qaeda militants attacked a military checkpoint in the same area, killing two government soldiers. A third militant was supposedly killed in the clash.