“We do not fight in this way, and this not what we call on people to do, and this is not our approach,” it said in the statement, adding it had warned its fighters not to attack the hospital.

The killing of unarmed medics and patients, captured on closed-circuit television footage and broadcast by state media, caused widespread outrage in Yemen, where al Qaeda has portrayed itself as fighting for normal people against foreign drone strikes.

Al Qaeda’s offshoot Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) claimed responsibility earlier this month for the December 5 assault in which at least 52 people were killed, the worst such attack in Yemen for 18 months.

It said it attacked the compound because it believed it to house an operations room for drone attacks carried out by the United States against Islamist militants, which have also led to civilian deaths.