Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) denied that six of its leaders were killed in a Yemeni air strike last week, according to a statement published by the SITE monitoring group on Monday.

NONE "None of the mujahedeen were killed in that unjust and insidious raid; rather, some brothers were slightly wounded," the Qaeda group said in a statement on jihadist forums, SITE reported.

The Yemeni government launched a new offensive in late December against the Qaeda branch, which claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing of a US-bound plane on Christmas Day.

Sanaa said that AQAP military boss Qassem al-Rimi died in a missile strike in the province of Saada province on Friday, along with Ayed al-Shabwani, Ammar al-Waili, Saleh al-Tais, Egyptian Ibrahim Mohammed Saleh al-Banna and an unidentified sixth person.

'False victory' 

"The agent Yemeni government seeks through these pretenses to prove a false victory, which it presents as gifts to (US President Barack) Obama and (British Prime Minister Gordon) Brown and their allies in the London Conference, claiming that it has the capability to eliminate the mujahedeen in the Arabian Peninsula," AQAP said.

NONE Brown is to host an international meeting on fighting extremism in Yemen on January 27, which was called days after Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallah, 23, allegedly tried to blow up a Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

He is thought to have been trained in Yemen.

AQAP called on Muslims to "declare jihad against the infidels and their agent helpers, not only on the ground, but in the sea and air as well," noting the presence of foreign warships in the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea, according to the SITE statement.

Yemen is under US pressure to clamp down on Al-Qaeda, and analysts say that the government in the impoverished state is keen to show the world it can crush Al-Qaeda militants on its own.

-AFP