At least 50 militants were killed in a U.S. airstrike on an al-Qaida training camp in the mountains of southern Yemen, medics and a local official said on Wednesday.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that a U.S. airstrike on an AQAP training camp had killed dozens of fighters but it gave no further details.

The Yemeni sources said that at least 50 people were killed and 30 wounded. The airstrikes set off huge fires inside the camp, residents said.

"The planes struck as al-Qaida people stood in line to receive their dinner meal," a local official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by telephone.

Yemeni residents had earlier said the attack on the base was carried out by war planes from a Saudi-led coalition, which over the past year has been trying to stop Iran-allied Houthi rebels from controlling the country.