Ten killed as Yemeni police clash with separatists (2nd Roundup)

Jul 23, 2009, 15:56 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - Ten people were killed and 24 injured during clashes between security forces and supporters of a separatist leader in southern Yemen on Thursday, a provincial governor and separatists said.

The clashes erupted after a rally in Zunjubar city, 420 kilometres south of Sana'a, held by members of the Southern Movement, a group calling for the south of Yemen to cede from the north, Ahmad al- Maisari, the governor of the southern province of Abyan said.

He told the official Saba news agency that eight civilians were killed and 24 people injured, six of them police officers. Sources close to the Southern Movement told the German Press Agency dpa that two southern activists were also killed.

They said similar clashes broke out in the Ba-Tais district north of Zunjubar in the afternoon, but there were no reports on casualties.

Al-Maisari said armed supporters of Sheikh Tariq al-Fadhli, a leading separatist, fired rocket-propelled grenades and armour- piercing missiles as they exchanged fire with police after the rally which was addressed by southern secessionist figures.

He said the armed men wanted to use force to free southern activists detained at the police headquarters in Zunjubar.

The governor said the separatists also set a police vehicle ablaze.

Police officials said gunmen from the crowd began spraying gunfire at the policemen, who returned the fire.

Authorities imposed a curfew in the city as the clashes continued during the afternoon, witnesses said.

Violent anti-government protests have engulfed cities in Yemen's southern provinces in recent months, leaving dozens of casualties among protesters and security forces amid claims by the southerners that the central government exercises discriminatory policies against them.

The violence highlights the increasing tensions between southern and northern Yemen, nearly 15 years after a civil war in 1994 that ended with the defeat of the southern military by northern forces led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

North and South Yemen were united in 1990. In 1994, southern leaders announced the secession of the south and battled northern forces led by Saleh for 10 weeks in a civil war that ended in their defeat.