SANA'A: At least two people were killed on Sunday night, including a girl, and several others wounded in Yemen's southern port of Aden. A security official said clashes between Yemeni troops and southern movement fighters took place in Al-Mualla district during a bid by Yemeni security forces to re-open the main road and a siege on the area. Sources said that Sameh Mohamed Al-Yazeida, and one of his relatives were killed while passing by, along with two others standers-by. Yemen's Interior Ministry stated on its website that two soldiers were injured during the clashes. The tensions between Yemeni government and Southern Movement fighters have risen in the past two weeks especially after the appointment of a new governor and a new security director for Aden province. In an interview with the New York Times in February, 2010, separatists claim that more than 100 people have been killed in clashes with the police and security forces since the southern movement began in 2007, with arrested secessionists numbering around 1,500 remaining in prison as of early 2010. The movement for an independent South Yemen has gained strength since 2007, when protests broke out over the forced early retirement of several army officers from the south. Fears of a renewed civil war are constant, and many Yemenis still remember the bloody 1994 civil war. Further south, security officials said that at least 16 suspected Al-Qaeda militants were killed when missiles fired from the sea slammed into Al-Qaeda positions in the Yemen southern province of Abyan. The sources said that heavy shelling began overnight targeting the northeastern suburbs of Zinjibar, which jihadists have controlled since May following fierce fighting with government troops. He added that many bases of Al-Qaeda were destroyed and 16 jihadists were killed. Al-Qaeda militants have exploited the weakening central government in Sana'a to strengthen their presence in the country, especially across the restive south and southeast. Zinjibar is the capital of Abyan, a stronghold of the jihadists' local affiliate Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, whose militants fight under the banner of Ansar al-Sharia. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/bSUUA Tags: Aden, Clashes, featured, Militants, Yemen Section: Latest News, Yemen
