Men claiming to be Al-Qaeda members have vowed to avenge those killed in a Yemeni air strike on one of the group's training camps in southern Yemen, Al-Jazeera television reported on Tuesday.

In a short video aired by the pan-Arab satellite channel, a bearded man holding a microphone and flanked by two armed men addressed a crowd gathered in the Abyan province to mourn those killed in Thursday's air raid.

"We carry prayer beads and with them we carry a bomb for the enemies of God," the man said.

Al-Jazeera identified them as "armed men claiming to be from Al-Qaeda" and said they had also vowed revenge for the victims of the air raid.

Thursday's air strike on the village of Al-Maajala killed 23 children and 17 women, a local official and tribal sources said. The government said it targeted a suspected Al-Qaeda training camp, killing around 30 militants, some of them foreigners.

"Know, (Yemeni) soldiers, that we do not want to fight you, and there is no issue between us," the bearded man said in the video.

"The issue is between us and America and its allies, and beware those who stand in the ranks of America."

Twin blasts at the site of the air strike killed two people and wounded nine on Monday. The explosions occurred after a protest by thousands of southern tribesmen demanding an investigation into the air strike.

The provincial governor blamed Al-Qaeda for the blasts.

"The Al-Qaeda terrorists mined the ground targeted in Thursday's raid… in the expectation that the security forces would inspect the site as part of their investigation," Ahmed al-Muyasari told the official Saba news agency.

The province of Abyan has in recent years become a base area for Islamist fighters, including veterans of fighting in Afghanistan. It is outside the control of Yemeni security forces.

Since Thursday's air strike, more than 30 members of Al-Qaeda have been arrested by government forces, the defence ministry said.

The New York Times reported that US President Barack Obama approved firepower, intelligence and other support for Yemen's efforts against Al-Qaeda.

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