Suhaib Salem/Reuters
Antigovernment protesters during a rally Friday to demand the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the capital.
SANA, Yemen ? Security forces fired at a funeral procession in the city of Aden on Friday and gunmen responded by attacking a military tank, the government and local journalists said. A total of five people were killed in the clashes.
Thousands of people gathered for the funeral of an activist in the southern separatist movement after noon prayers in Aden, a southern port city, according to witnesses. The activist, Ahmed Darwish, was tortured to death by Yemeni security forces about a year ago, according to several human rights groups.
Mr. Darwish?s family had refused to bury him until those responsible were held accountable. A former local official has now been charged in his killing.
When the security forces opened fire on the funeral procession in the Mansoura neighborhood of Aden, Jiyab al-Saadi, the son of a famous southern separatist leader, was killed, the media in Aden reported.
A short time later, fighting broke out between security forces and armed men in the same area. The Ministry of Defense said in a statement on its Web site that three soldiers were killed in the fighting when what the ministry described as ?terrorists believed to be from Al Qaeda? used a car bomb to attack a military checkpoint.
Two local journalists described the episode differently, however, saying that there had been a short gun battle and then the gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank. They said that the gunmen were likely to have been from the southern separatist movement and were retaliating for the killing of Mr. Saadi. A bystander was shot and killed during the clash, according to a police officer.
Mr. Darwish?s family decided to proceed with his funeral after a local court charged Aden?s former head of security, Abdullah Qairan, with ordering his killing. Many people in Aden have accused Mr. Qairan of authorizing violence against civilians.
Mr. Qairan is currently the head of security in Taiz, a city in the central highlands, where he was reassigned in March.
Mr. Darwish?s photo is posted on walls throughout the Sada district of Aden, where he grew up. He has become a symbol in the city of the security forces? brutality. Human Rights Watch has criticized the Yemeni government for using disproportionate force against people who demonstrate in support of the southern separatist movement.
The secessionist movement, known as Herak, demands the re-creation of an independent southern Yemeni state.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=29e4d02a7a6787af77bb0dadfa4316ef
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