22 فبراير في الصحافة العربية و المواقع الاخبارية

[سفيان]

Yemen arrests 80 separatists over southern unrest

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldN...61L2N620100222
رويتر
By Mohammed Mukhashaff
ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Yemen has arrested some 80 suspected separatists after army positions in south Yemen came under fire and shops owned by northerners were burnt, an official and southern residents said Monday.
The three-day sweeps followed a week of unrest in which separatists tried to block a road linking the southern province of Lahj to the main southern city of Aden, the official said.
"These people were behind acts of strife and the burning of shops in the city of al-Houta in Lahj province," a government official told Reuters, adding the suspects would be charged.
Yemen, the poorest Arab country, is battling a Shi'ite insurgency in the north as well as a resurgent al Qaeda, whose local arm claimed responsibility for a failed December bomb attack on a U.S.-bound plane as it approached Detroit.
Western governments and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, fear al Qaeda is exploiting the instability in Yemen to recruit and train militants to launch attacks in the region and beyond.
People in south Yemen, home to most Yemeni oil facilities, complain that northerners have abused a 1990 agreement uniting the country to grab resources and discriminate against them.
U.S. TO DOUBLE SECURITY FUNDING
In Washington, a senior U.S. congressional official said on Monday that Defence Secretary Robert Gates has approved more than doubling U.S. funding to train and equip Yemeni security forces to combat al Qaeda.