Two men killed and seven others injured in clashes between armed demonstrators and security forces in south Yemen

By Nasser Arrabyee/13/02/2010

Two Yemenis were killed and seven others injured Saturday in Al Hota city in the southern governorate of Lahj when, disgruntled and armed demonstrators calling for separation of the south, clashed with the security forces.

The angry demonstrators, many of them armed, wanted to take by force a dead body of man, killed last week in a similar demonstration, from the hospital of Ibn Kheldoon in the city of Al Hotah, local sources and eyewitnesses said.

The clashes happened when the security forces refused to hand over the dead body to the demonstrators, saying the dead body will only be handed over to his family, who must directly take it to the cemetery.

The demonstrators wanted to use the dead body for attracting more people to their demonstration in which they called for armed revolution against what they called the "northern occupation".

Last week, a man was killed when the security forces tried to prevent armed demonstrators from setting fire to shops belonging to people originally from the north.

The security director of Lahj province, Ali Al Ameri said that the security forces applied the law against those who tried to break it by using violence in the demonstrations.

"Some separatists and saboteurs tried to attack the government's offices, and fired randomly at the police patrols and threw hand grenades killing one and injuring three others," said Al Ameri.

Meanwhile, in the southern province of Shabwah, a soldier was killed and three others injured when gunmen believed to be Al Qaeda operatives attacked a military vehicle patrolling at the outskirt of the city of Atak, the capital of Shabwah, local sources said Saturday.