A suspected US spy drone crashed near the town of Lawder district, Abyan province, as no casualties were reported.
Sources told the Yemen Post that the local residents found the drones wreckages in Jahayn village, which is considered an Al-Qaeda stronghold.
Local residents called police to collect the debris.
However, suspected Al-Qaeda militants arrived at the scene and hijacked the wreckage, witnesses told media outlets.
Government forces and alleged Al-Qaeda militants fought a pitched battle in Lawder in late August.
Yemen has come under intense pressure to crack down on Al-Qaeda's local franchise, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, since a December 2009 attempt to blow up a US airliner that was claimed by AQAP.
And two parcel bombs on passenger planes posted from Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago were uncovered in Dubai and Britain last October 28, sparking a global alert.