1 killed, 4 wounded in Yemen clashes

Security forces killed one demonstrator and wounded four others Wednesday, officials said, in the fourth day of rioting that has engulfed the country's south.

Wednesday's 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 was 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, said a security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media.

Nasser Mohammed Thabet, a parliamentarian from al-Hablain, said at least 40 tanks and 100 other military vehicles were 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.

Thousands of protesters in other towns also clashed with security forces Wednesday, and at least 120 people have been arrested over the last four days, officials said.

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, and many protesters are former members of the defeated southern army.

After the civil war, many southern soldiers fled to the mountainous hinterlands and Saudi Arabia, returning only when Yemen's 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.

But ruling party spokesman, Tarek al-Shami, called the riots an "act of sabotage."

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