At least three security soldiers were killed and five others wounded on Wednesday when a group of al- Qaida gunmen attacked the convoy of Shabwa governor and other top officials in south Yemen, a provincial security official told Xinhua. The official said the al-Qaida's attack took place in Yashbam valley, close to al-Hota town where a combined security and arm forces were still fighting fighters of the resurgent al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in the country's southeast province of Shabwa. 'The Shabwa governor Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi and deputy chief of general staff, Brigadier General Salim al-Qetin and other top officials survived al-Qaida's attack,' the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. 'Three security soldiers were killed and five another soldiers wounded when they along with other soldiers accompanying the governor's convoy engaged in fierce clashes with al-Qaida assailants to protect the officials,' he said. Shabwa has apparently become a stronghold of AQAP, which has witnessed a series of deadly battles between al-Qaida fighters and the security forces over the past month. Last week, Yemen's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the combined forces of security and army units cleansed Hota town in Shabwa of the entrenched al- Qaida militants and forced the rest to flee to surrounding mountains. According to intelligence reports, as many as 200 al-Qaida militants had arrived in the town from the northeastern province of Marib and the southern province of Abyan, bringing the total number of al-Qaida fighters there to about 300, he said. Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida network leader Osama bin Laden, has witnessed a series of deadly attacks by the al- Qaida group since late last year. The Yemeni government has intensified security operations and air raids against terrorist groups after the Yemen-based al-Qaida wing claimed credit for an attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound passenger plane last December. 