Eleven other troops were wounded, he added.
The UAE-backed council controls much of Yemen's south. It is at odds with the internationally recognized government, although they are allies in Yemen's yearslong war against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who control the north and the capital Sanaa.
Al-Naqib blamed al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, for the attack.
AQAP is seen as one of the more dangerous branches of the terror group still operating more than a decade after the killing of founder Osama bin Laden.
It is active in several regions in Yemen, exploiting the country’s civil war to cement its presence in the nation at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
Yemen’s ruinous civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital of Sanaa and much of northern Yemen and forced the internationally recognized government into exile.