1 killed amid rioting in Yemen

SANA, Yemen: Yemen security forces killed one demonstrator and wounded four others Wednesday in the fourth day of rioting that has engulfed the country's south.

The death was the first since clashes broke out between security forces and thousands of former southern Yemen Army officers, political activists and unemployed young men who accuse Yemeni authorities in the north of unequal treatment.

The worst violence took place in the south's Lahaj Province, where troops opened fire on 5,000 demonstrators in the town of al-Hablain, killing one and wounding four others when they dispersed the protest.

Nasser Mohammed Thabet, a parliamentarian from al-Hablain said that at least 40 tanks and 100 other military vehicles had been deployed in the city.

"Local activists are trying to convince the government to pull its troops off the streets so that they can persuade people to stop their protests," he said.

In the nearby town of Tora al-Baha, 1,500 people attacked a government compound and set fire to the ruling National Congress Party headquarters.

In Dhalae Province, 5,000 protesters hurled stones at security forces, who fired back with tear gas and bullets in the air, a security official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

At least 120 people have been arrested over the last four days, added the official.

The clashes underline tensions between northern and southern Yemen 14 years after a civil war. Northerners dominate the government and economy in this impoverished country.

Though the country's modest oil resources are located in the south, the bulk of investment and government spending is in the more populous and affluent north.

Many of the protesters are former members of the defeated southern army which, after the civil war, fled to the mountainous hinterlands and Saudi Arabia. They returned only when the government issued an amnesty and promised to readmit them to the army - a promise southerners say has not been kept.

The head of the opposition Yemen Socialist Party, Yassin Noman, accused the government of cracking down on peaceful calls for reform.

"Arrests are aimed at terrorizing activists," he said.

But ruling party spokesman, Tarek al-Shami, called the riots an "act of sabotage that targets national unity, incites hatred and sectarian tensions."

Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, is home to heavily armed tribes that barely acknowledge the authority of the central government. There is also a persistent Al Qaeda movement that has attacked and killed foreigners on several occasions.

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