[سفيان]

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topic...7&parent_id=17

Policemen, militant die in south Yemen clashes

AFP/Aden, Yemen


Two policemen were killed and four people wounded in clashes yesterday in restive southern Yemen, hours after the army killed at least one militant, a local official and witnesses said.
Two policemen were also among the wounded, the sources said.
Fighting broke out at dawn after security forces put up a checkpoint outside Habilayn, in Lahij province, pitting Yemen’s army against militants from the Southern Movement, the official said.
At least one militant was killed and two others were shot and wounded in the initial clashes, local officials and medics said.
But a Southern Movement official said two of its members, hit by shrapnel, had died in hospital after the army fired on a position held by the militants on a mountain overlooking Habilayn.
On Friday, three soldiers were wounded when their patrol was ambushed by suspected Southern Movement members, another local official said.
The army set up the checkpoint after an army brigade commander, General Thabet Nasser al-Juhuri, survived two assassination attempts last week, the official said.
In the provincial capital of Huta, militants attacked the local intelligence headquarters with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades on Friday night, causing damage but no casualties, witnesses and a security official said.
In neighbouring Abyan province, gunmen killed one policeman and wounded another in an attack on a patrol late on Friday, the defence ministry’s 26sep.net news ***site said.
South Yemen, where many residents complain of discrimination by the Sanaa government in the al of resources, was independent from 1967 until 1990 when it united with the north. It launched an abortive secession bid in 1994.
The Southern Movement is a mix of secessionists and those who seek greater autonomy for the region.