3 Yemen soldiers killed in assault on military post

Car of Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed al-Saidi in southern Yemeni city of Ataq Tribesman killed three Yemeni soldiers in an assault on a military post Saturday, as a second day of confrontations sparked by a tribal chief's death paralysed cities across the restive south. The "tribesmen attacked with machineguns a checkpoint to the east of the town of Al-Qotn, killing three soldiers and wounding others," a day after they had warned the troops to leave, a local official said.
It came after police said armed clashes broke out in cities across southern Yemen, and medics said a militant wounded on Friday had died of his injuries.
Tension also spiked in northern Yemen, where the Sunni Islamist Al-Islah party accused Zaidi Shiite rebels known as Huthis of abducting one of its members as fighting raged.
In the eastern province of Marib, saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline for the third time this week, and tribesmen attacked soldiers escorting repair workers, officials said.
Attacks on oil and gas pipelines are frequent in Yemen, with the government saying sabotage has cost the country $4.75 billion (3.5 billion euros) in the two years to March 2013.
The latest bloodshed in the south came as schools and public offices were closed and shops shuttered on the second day of a week of protests launched over the death of tribal chief Said Ben Habriche, who was to be buried Saturday.
Four Southern Movement militants and two policemen were wounded in a clash in Ataq, capital of Shabwa province, police said.
The militants seized a rapid intervention force vehicle and police had to repel gunmen who briefly took over a telecommunications centre and a clinic, security officials said.
In Huta, capital of Lahj province, a policeman and four passers-by were wounded in a gunfight between Southern Movement militants and a patrol, sources said.
On Friday, a child and a militant were killed in the main southern city of Aden and in Mukalla, in southeast Yemen, medics and witnesses said.
And another southern militant who was wounded when police opened fire after a precinct in Aden was attacked, died on Saturday, medics said.
Ben Habriche was among six tribesmen killed on December 2 in fighting that erupted when his bodyguards refused to hand over their weapons to soldiers at a checkpoint. Two soldiers also died.
The tribal chief's funeral was due to take place in Mukalla where the Southern Movement said its supporters had taken over the city's police station "without clashes".
Most Mukalla residents stayed indoors and traffic was at a virtual standstill because of barricades of rocks and burning tyres set up by militants on main roads, witnesses said.
Protest organisers are pressing authorities to hand over the suspect accused of killing Ben Habriche and to provide jobs for southerners in the security forces and oil sector.
'Abduction' in the north
Following the end of British colonial rule in 1967, southern Yemen was independent until union with the north in 1990.
This was followed by a secession attempt in 1994 that sparked a brief but bloody civil war.
The conflict ended with an occupation of the south by northern forces that led to many of the disputes over land and jobs that still fan southern resentment.
Southern grievances are the main issue obstructing Yemen's national dialogue aimed at sealing a reconciliation following a 2011 revolt that led to the ouster of long-time president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Authorities are also confronting an insurgency in the north, where Zaidis rose up against the central government in 2004, accusing it of marginalising them politically and economically.
The unrest in the remote Saada province has been compounded by sectarian fighting between the Zaidis and radical Sunni militants, with nine people reportedly killed on Thursday.
On Saturday Al-Islah, which includes radical Islamists involved in fighting the Zaidis, accused them of abducting its Saada representative, Sheikh Ali bin Ghaeb Zeid, and later said he was freed.
There was also violence in the capital Sanaa on Saturday, as police said they had seized a car packed with explosives and weapons after a firefight with two armed men inside the vehicle.
Both men were wounded in the clash, a defence ministry website quoted a police official as saying. One of the men died in hospital from his wounds, and security forces  arrested the second.
Source: AFP