Sanaa : Eight Al Qaeda militants and 12 civilians were killed on Sunday when the US Special Forces launched a pre-dawn security raid on a village in Yemen's al-Bayda province, the media reported.

A senior Al Qaeda leader, Abdul-Raoof Dhahab, his two brothers, and five other terrorists were killed in the operation, which was carried out in cooperation with local authorities, military officials told Xinhua news agency.

The 12 civilians included four women and three children.

Local residents said that "four military planes participated in the operation and kept hovering over the village for hours."

A source at Yemen's intelligence agency confirmed that helicopter-borne commandos raided houses held by the Al Qaeda militants.

Some American soldiers were injured in the raid on the ground, the intelligence source said.-Agency