By DPA,
Sana’a (Yemen): Eight people were killed and 24 injured in clashes between security forces and supporters of a separatist leader in southern Yemen Thursday, a provincial governor said.
The clashes erupted after a rally in Zunjubar city, some 420 km south of Sana’a, held by members of the Southern Movement, a group calling for the south of Yemen to secede from the north, Ahmad al-Maisari, the governor of the southern province of Abyan said.
He told the official Saba news agency that eight civilians were killed and 18 as well as the Zunjubar police vice superintendent were seriously injured in the clashes.
Al-Maisari said armed supporters of Sheikh Tariq al-Fadhli, a leading separatist, fired RPGs and armour-piercing rockets as they exchanged fire with police after the rally which was addressed by southern secessionist figures.
He said the armed men wanted to use force to free southern activists detained at the police headquarters in Zunjubar.
The governor said the separatists also set a police vehicle ablaze.
Police officials said gunmen from the crowd began spraying gunfire at the policemen, who returned the fire.
Authorities imposed a curfew in the city as the clashes continued during the afternoon, witnesses said.
Violent anti-government protests have engulfed cities in Yemen’s southern provinces in recent months, leaving dozens of casualties among protesters and security forces amid claims by the southerners that the central government exercises discriminatory policies against them.