A US air strike has killed the media chief for al-Qaida's Yemeni branch along with six other militants, the Ministry of Defence said on Saturday, in the second high-profile American missile attack in as many weeks to target the terror group in the country.

A ministry statement said Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Bana and six other militants were killed in the south-eastern province of Shabwa on Friday night. Security officials said an American drone carried out the airstrike, which was one of five overnight strikes that targeted suspected al-Qaida positions in Shabwa and the neighbouring province of Abyan in Yemen's largely lawless south.

Friday's missile attack came two weeks after a US drone strike killed prominent American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a gifted Muslim preacher and savvy internet operator who became a powerful al-Qaida tool for recruiting in the West. Also killed was Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American who was a propagandist for Yemen's al-Qaida branch: al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

The latest airstrike underlines the growing use by the United States of drones to hit al-Qaida militants in Yemen in what appears to be a determined effort to remove the threat emanating from the group, blamed for plotting or inspiring a series of attacks on American soil and in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, a staunch Washington ally.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has taken advantage of the political turmoil roiling Yemen. Embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been struggling to stay in power in the face of eight months of massive street protests demanding his exit from power and the defection to the opposition of key aides and military commanders.