The Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for attacks on the army in southeast Yemen on Friday, after the military had blamed Al Qaeda for the assaults that cost dozens of lives.

The Daesh said in a statement, quoted by SITE monitoring group, that 50 Yemeni troops were killed in multi-pronged attacks including a suicide bombing and clashes in Hadramawt province.

The Yemeni army earlier said Al Qaeda had launched the attacks on army positions near the town of Shibam, and that 12 soldiers and 19 militants were killed.

Medics later said the army lost 15 men and that several civilians were wounded. Hadramawt province is a stronghold of Al Qaeda whose militants control its capital Mukalla.

The Daesh group is also present in Yemen feeding on chaos in the country where a Saudi-led Arab coalition has been battling Iran-backed Houthi rebels opposed to the government.

Both Al Qaeda and Daesh are visibly present in Yemen's second city Aden, where the Saudi-backed government has set up a temporary headquarters after the Houthis took over the capital Sanaa.

The Daesh said its operation on Friday targeted "three barracks of the apostate Yemeni army" on a road near Shibam in Hadramawt, SITE reported.

The Daesh said its fighters seized the barracks, killing or wounding those inside and that later a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into army reinforcements sent to the area. The statement claimed that in all 50 soldiers were killed and said that clashes with Yemeni troops were still underway. - AFP