2 killed in clashes between Yemeni troops, pro-secession activists

Source : Xinhua

ADEN, Yemen, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and three others injured in armed clashes that erupted between Yemeni security troops and pro-secession activists in the southern port city of Aden on Wednesday, a police officer and witnesses told Xinhua.

"One soldier was killed and three others were wounded by gunfire after pro-secession gunmen attempted to block main roads in Aden's neighborhood of Cerater," the local police officer said anonymously.

Also in the same neighborhood in Aden, a secessionist activist was killed when security troops tried to intervene and remove roadblocks by firing live ammunition into the air, according to witnesses near the scene.

A local resident told Xinhua anonymously that "the situation is too bad, gunfire and armed confrontations are still going on across the Cerater neighborhood. Security troops were deployed.

The southerners complain of being economically and politically marginalized and discriminated against since northern troops won a four-month civil war in 1994.

Supporters of pro-secession Southern Movement staged almost daily rallies to protest against the national reconciliation dialogue, which was launched in March by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, as part of a UN-backed political settlement to preserve the Yemeni unity.

The talks, which set to run for six months, aimed to end split between northern and southern regions, draft a new constitution and pave the way for general elections by the end of Hadi's two- year interim period in February 2014.

However, some leaders of the Southern Movement refused to join the talks, insisting that the Sanaa government should withdraw its troops from the south.