A semi-large strike has paralyzed the two southern provinces of Dhale and Lahj a day after the southern movement urged all public and private facilities, commercial stores and transportation to be shut down in the south, arguing all protests and strikes come to draw the attention of the government to the people's complaints.
The life in the two cities, the worst hit by rioting last year, remained normal according to independent sources.
In Lahj, all commercial stores in Al-Hawta, the capital, and other four main districts were shut down.
There were no people in the streets, they said, adding that other districts were confirmed as without strikes and no reports on the situation in other districts were available.
Police were seen in Al-Hawta but no measures were taken against the people who shut down their stores, according to the sources.
A day earlier young men burned tries in the streets and distributed leaflets calling for a full-scale strike but police broke up the rally and shot bullets into the air.
In Dhale, the life was totally paralyzed with no people seen in the streets and all stores shut down.
But in Abyan, one of the southern provinces hit by rioting last year, the call of the southern movement was turned down and no strike took place.
The situation remained normal in all parts of the province that responded largely to the call of Tariq Al-Fadhli holding a full-strike few months ago.
On Saturday, the southern anti-government movement urged a large-scale strike in the south starting from 6:00 am until 12:00 pm today.
The movement said in a statement that the call came within an escalation against what it described was continuous harassment against the people in the south, pointing to the recent attack against the bureau of Al-Ayyam newspaper.
In the attack, the paper's editor-in-chief was arrested along with his two sons and some of the people who were at the building in solidarity with the paper that was suspended last year in connection with anti-unity rhetoric.
No strike reports in other southern parts surfaced, in a sign of the failure of the call to hold overall strike in the south.