SANAA — The Yemeni army killed more than 30 al-Qaeda insurgents in heavy fighting on Wednesday, a senior military commander said, after the Islamists attacked military posts in a southern province where the government launched an offensive two weeks ago.

A military source said the militants had surprised troops at military outposts in the Azzan and Gol al-Rayda districts of Shabwa province, killing at least eight soldiers and sparking a battle that raged for hours. An army colonel was among the dead, a Defense Ministry source said.

The Yemeni army had captured both Azzan and Gol al-Rayda, as well as the Mahfad district in Abyan province, earlier this month after heavy fighting in which scores were killed on both sides.

Many of the militants, from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and its affiliate, Ansar al-Sharia, fled to the mountains and turned to hit-and-run tactics against security forces and government facilities.

Wednesday’s raid was one of their most daring actions since then. Lieutenant General Ahmed Saif al-Yafe’i, head of the Yemeni army’s Third Military Command, called the assault a desperate attempt by “a group shaken by defeat” to show it was still able to fight back.

“Dozens of militants have fled Azzan, while more than 30 elements have been killed since the dawn of this day,” the state news agency Saba quoted Yafe’i as saying.

He said the fighting had revealed that al-Qaeda was recruiting children to fight and that documents and pictures showing this would be made available to the media soon.