Yemeni forces strife with suspected rebels in south

ADEN, Yemen Mon Mar 1, 2010 2:27pm EST Related News Yemen arrests 21 in southSun, Feb 28 2010Yemen sappers enter Shi"ite rebel strongholdSat, Feb 27 2010Yemen declares state of emergency in southern citySat, Feb 27 2010Top Yemen al Qaeda leader threatens U.S. attacksTue, Feb 23 2010Yemen"s Saleh hopes to woo Gulf cash in Saudi visitTue, Feb 23 2010

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Yemeni security forces clashed on Monday with suspected rebels in the southern Abyan province, where separatists are campaigning against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

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Residents said at least three Yemeni policemen had been killed and five wounded. But a government source in Sanaa said only two members of the security forces had died.

He said the gunbattle took place when security forces tried to arrest an arms dealer suspected of supplying the separatists, and that four other people had been killed, including a man suspected of links to al Qaeda named as Ali al-Yafie.

A defense ministry website said only that Yafie and another militant were killed and a third injured in an operation against a number of separatist targets in the town of Zinjibar.

Yemen rose to the forefront of Western security concerns after the Yemeni arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December.

Western governments and neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world"s biggest oil exporter, fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability in Yemen to recruit and train militants to launch attacks in the region and beyond.

Last week, a policeman was shot dead in an ambush in the south, and on Sunday crowds protested in the southern provinces of Abyan, Dalea and Aden against the arrest of 21 people accused of rioting. Many carried the flag of the former South Yemen.

North and South Yemen united under Saleh"s presidency in 1990 but many in the south, home to most Yemeni oil facilities, complain that northerners have used unification to grab resources and discriminate against them.

Yemen"s government struck a truce on February 11 with Shi"ite rebels whom it had been fighting in the north, allowing it to turn its attention to unrest in the south as well as al Qaeda.

Saleh urged northern rebels, called Houthis after the clan name of their leaders, to join the political process by establishing a party.

"If they want, the Houthis can set up a party but it should not be based on race or limited to a village or one tribe, but be a party encompassing the whole country," he said in remarks aired on state television on Monday.

Separately, the central bank said on Monday that it injected $100 million into the foreign exchange market to support the Yemeni rial, bringing the value of its hard currency sales this year to $595 million, the state news agency Saba reported.

Traders in the southern city of Aden said the rial edged up after the injection to 215.5 for each dollar from 216 on Sunday.

In January, when fighting raged with northern rebels and amid government raids on al Qaeda militants, the rial fell to 215 for each dollar from 208 despite a $150 million injection.

(Reporting by Mohammed Mokhashaf; additional reporting by Mohammed Sudam in Sanaa; Editing by Charles Dick)

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