Yemeni soldiers who had supported anti-government protests last year kidnapped a senior military officer on Thursday in protest against salary cut, government officials said.

Brigadier General Murad al-Awbali, commander of the 62nd brigade of the Republican Guards, was snatched at a checkpoint set by angry soldiers in Jahana district in the eastern outskirts of the capital Sanaa.

Al-Awbali, a loyalist to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his son Ahmed who still head the well-equipped Republican Guards, was accused of cutting salaries of the soldiers who joined anti-Saleh protests last year, the government officials.

Thousands of soldiers broke ranks and joined anti-government popular protests that eventually forced the long-time leader to step down and transferred power to his then deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in February this year under a deal brokered by neighboring Gulf states.

Unlike those who affiliated with the Republican Guards, thousands of the defected soldiers ended mutiny and returned to their units after Hadi sacked several commanders two months ago as part of the power transfer deal to reform and reunify the divided armed forces to focus efforts on fighting rampant al-Qaida terrorists in the country's southern regions.

"The angry soldiers complained that commander al-Awbali and other senior officers of the Republican Guards refused to pay their salaries since they joined protests last year," said a tribal chieftain who is brokering the release of the abducted commander.

"So they kidnapped him to force the leaders of the Republican Guards to pay them and allow them to return to their units," he said, hinting that the mediation efforts to secure the commander's release are making progress.

Hadi has vowed to launch reforms in the army to end divisions that threatened to split the impoverished Arab country.

He replace about 20 generals in April, including a number of Saleh's relatives and loyalists, in a bid to implement reforms in the army to concentrate efforts on battling resurgent al-Qaida network and paved the way for a national dialogue. The country's opposition groups have announced their conditions for engaging in the national dialogue, including the removal of Saleh's relatives from high-ranking military posts.

The poorest Arab state had been gripped by the year-long unrest since the eruption of anti-government protests in January 2011. Deadly clashes between government troops and the defected army across the country have left thousands of people killed and more fled their homes.

Earlier this month, the army drove al-Qaida fighters out of several cities in the southern province of Abyan, which they had controlled for nearly one year.