The army late on Saturday shot dead Abdulmajid Mabrouk and wounded Basil Al Baghdadi, identified as an activist in the separatist Southern Movement, at a checkpoint in Huta, the capital of Lahj, residents said.
A military official confirmed the incident saying that “an army checkpoint in Huta responded after it came under fire,” without giving further details.
The assault in one of the movement’s strongholds in the south comes two days after a newspaper quoted President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi accusing Iran of backing a faction of the Southern Movement seeking to secede by force of arms.
“In the south, there are two movements: a peaceful one and another, which is not,” the pan-Arab Al Hayat daily quoted him as saying in remarks published on Friday.
“The latter resorts to the use of weapons, receives Iranian assistance and works for secession” of south Yemen, which was a separate state until 1990, Hadi charged.
Some factions of the Southern Movement want autonomy for the south, but more hardline members are pressing for a return to complete independence.
Meanwhile, the leader of largest and most powerful tribe has urged Yemen’s factions, including Al Qaeda, to renounce violence and open a dialogue.
The alternative, he said, is armed conflict.
Yemen’s president has warned that if next month’s dialogue attempt fails, his country could descend into civil war.
Sheik Sadeq Al Ahmar, leader of Hashid tribal confederation, told the first meeting of the alliance of Yemen’s tribes on Saturday that the Hawthis in the north, the armed secessionists in the south and Al Qaeda must reject violence and join in the political process, without preconditions.
He said all of Yemen’s political parties, tribes and civil society groups should take part in the national dialogue, starting on Nov. 15.
“The road to solving problems is to leave arms behind and turn to dialogue,” he said, “so that the Yemeni people will not be forced to resort to the logic of blood.” Hadi has said that the national dialogue would be crucial for the future of the impoverished country.
