Yemeni army killed a terrorist suspect in the clashes that erupted on Wednesday with suspected Al-Qaeda fighters in Ja'ar town in Yemen's southern province of Abyan, local sources said.

An officer and a troop were killed and the injury toll among the forces rose to 14 soldiers in the fierce clashes that lasted for more than four hours, they said.

Amid the fighting, an explosives-laden car was seized near Al-Razi Hospital.

The fighting broke out after the forces had been dispatched to arrest Al-Qaeda suspects who were said to have holed up in a house in the town, a security source said.

A wanted suspect was wounded and ran away on Tuesday when the forces tried to capture him, the source said, as the authorities said three wanted suspects had been arrested in Ja'ar named as: Muhammad Yahya Muhammad, Ubaid Sami Shafiq Shouba and Ali Ahmed Al-Khuraibi.