Local sources from Abbyan told the Yemen Post that head of the Yemen's political security police in the south and brother of the vice president, Nasser Mansour Hadi, survived Wednesday night an assassination attempt when men alleged to be affiliates of Tareq Al-Fadhli- a tribal leader who switched allegiance to the southern mobility movement last year- opened fire on his car in Zinjibar of Abbyan governorate.

According to the same sources, two security officers were wounded in the incident, one of whom is now hospitalized.

Three days earlier, Zinjibar saw clashes as separatists and security forces exchanged fire at the house of a relative of Tareq Al-Fadhli.

In an interview published on Wednesday former vice president of Yemen, Ali Salem Al-Beidh, in exile in Germany, said that Saleh's government had behaved in the south like an occupying force. "The government's behavior had pushed citizens over the obstacle of fright to protest on the streets," he said.

He asked for help from any country, be the Arab world or from Iran, which backs Lebanese group Hezbollah, Palestinian group Hamas and Shiite elements in the Iraqi government.

He further accused president Saleh, of maintaining links to Al-Qaeda figures in Yemen in an attempt to have support from Gulf Arab governments who fear Al-Qaeda group.