2 killed, 9 injured in Yemeni separatist clashes

PanARMENIAN.Net - Two people were killed and nine others were wounded in clashes between Yemeni security forces and separatists in the south of the country on Saturday, February 23 medical and security sources said, according to Reuters.

The clashes followed separatist demonstrations in Mukalla, Ghayl ba Wazir and Aden, capital of the former state of south Yemen which merged with the north in 1990. Six people were shot dead during protests on Thursday.

One of those who died on Saturday was a 50-year-old civilian in Aden who was hit by a bullet, the sources said. The other was killed in Ghayl ba Wazir, a small town near Mukalla. The protests and clashes ended around noon.

The Islah party, one of the most powerful in Yemen, also said on Saturday that separatists had set fire to its headquarters in Mukalla, the capital of a former south Yemeni province.

The resurgent movement for a revived south Yemen state has aggravated political instability in the Arabian Peninsula country, where Washington fears political chaos is giving al Qaeda space to operate.

Yemen also faces an insurgency from Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda in some southern areas and a rebellion by the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi movement in the north.