Aden: Yemeni security forces and unknown
gunmen clashed on Saturday in the southern port city of Aden,
wounding two policemen and a civilian, a security official
said.
The gunfight erupted in the city`s Mualla neighbourhood a
day after a member of the al Qaeda-linked Partisans of Sharia
(Islamic law) was arrested in the same district, the official
said on condition of anonymity.
"Two members of the security forces and a civilian were
wounded in the shootout," he said, without giving any more
details.
Aden, Yemen`s largest southern city, has been plagued by
violence since al Qaeda-linked militants overran several towns
in neighbouring Abyan province last May.
The extremist group has increased its influence in the
country`s mostly lawless south and east since mass protests
demanding the ouster of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh,
which erupted in January 2011, weakened the central government
and divided its security forces.
Aden is also a stronghold of militants demanding either
autonomy or outright independence for the south, which was a
separate country until 1990.
Activists seriously disrupted the single-candidate
presidential poll in February which ended Saleh`s 33-year rule
over Yemen and made his deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi the first
new president in Sanaa since 1978. (AFP)
PTI
