Two children, aged 10 and 12, were killed in a suspected US air strike targeting al-Qaeda in central Yemen, a provincial official said on Tuesday.

The children had been tending a herd of goats on a mountain outside the village of Yakla, in Baida province, when the strike hit on Sunday, the official said.

There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon.

The United States has conducted more than 40 strikes against Al-Qaeda in Yemen since stepping up its air war against the jihadists on Thursday.

The Pentagon has said that none of the strikes have been conducted based on intelligence gathered in a botched US raid in January, the first authorised by President Donald Trump, in which multiple civilians and a Navy SEAL were killed.

More than two years of civil war between government forces and Shiite rebels who control the capital have created a power vacuum that Al-Qaeda has exploited to consolidate its presence in the south and east.

Washington regards Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based branch, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as the jihadist network's most dangerous and says it has been plotting attacks on the West in recent months.