Al-Qaeda militants killed a Yemeni militiaman on Tuesday and wounded eight others in an attack on a checkpoint in the country's south, said a member of the Popular Resistance Committees militia.

The occupants of a car in the Abyan provincial town of Mudiya opened fire on a checkpoint of the PRC, which backs up the army in its fight against Islamist militants, wounding two militiamen, the source said.

They then drove the car through the checkpoint before stopping and abandoning it. The car exploded as other militiamen approached it, killing one and wounding six others.

"The attack bears the mark of Al-Qaeda," the source added.

The committees have recently become a target for Al-Qaeda militants who were forced to flee Abyan in June following battles led by the army, with the local militiamen backing them up.

Al-Qaeda militants remain active in southern Yemen, where separatist militants also attack security forces, pressing their demands for renewed independence for the south.

South Yemen was a separate state before unification with the north in 1990.