Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has sacked his interior minister and an intelligence chief after a rise in unrest in the country, official news agency Saba reported on Saturday.

Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has sacked his interior minister and an intelligence chief after a rise in unrest in the country, official news agency Saba reported on Saturday.

Saba reported that Hadi named Abdo Tareb to replace interior minister Abdelqader Qahtan and General Jalal al-Rweshan to take over from Ghalib al-Qamesh as head of the political intelligence department.

He also appointed Khaled Bahhah to replace outgoing Oil Minister Ahmad Dares, the agency said.

Hadi had "pointed out that terrorist acts couldn't have been at this level if it weren't for the below-par performance of the security services" on a visit to the prison shortly after the jailbreak, Saba reported.

He had decided on the changes amid public anger over the mounting unrest in the country, political sources said.

Al-Qaeda-linked militants took advantage of the weakening of the central government during a popular uprising in 2011 to reinforce their strongholds and step up attacks on security forces.

In February, Hadi had criticized the "below-par" performance of Yemen's security services in tackling the growing unrest.

On Saturday morning, five Al-Qaeda militants launched an attack on an army base in the southern town of Loder, killing two soldiers, a military source told AFP.

One of the attackers, a Saudi national, was killed in the ensuing gunfight, and three others were wounded and captured, the source said.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered by Washington to be the most dangerous franchise of the global jihadist network, has launched large-scale operations in addition to attacks on troops and police.