A leader of the Southern Movement, Sharaf Mahfooz, was killed in clashes between the Yemeni army and armed men in the southern city of Aden on Wednesday, local sources said.
The sources said the forces used armored vehicles to respond to shootings at the block 25 of Almansora district.
They spelt out that clashes led to blockade of streets linking between Almansoura and other districts, pointing out that elements of the Southern Movement set fire in some streets in protest at the killing of Mahfooz.
Almansoura have been witnessing tensions three for three weeks between security forces and supporters of the Southern Movement in which three persons were killed and 40 others including 10 soldiers were wounded.
Media sources reported that Mahfooz had ties with the former southern president Ali Salem Al-Beidh, posting photos of the two persons while sitting together in Lebanon. Aden Online reported that Mahfooz along with a number of other southern leaders went to receive training in military and media fields in Beirut, and hold meetings with Al-Beidh during the few past months. For its part, Amnesty International called the Yemeni authorities to launch an immediate independent investigation on the last week events of Almansoura in which a number of protesters were killed and wounded.
"Snipers were seen firing from rooftops as hundreds gathered to mark the 18th anniversary of the day in 1994 that government forces from Sana'a captured Aden from secessionist forces at the end of the civil war" It added. Secretary General of the Southern Movement Abdullah Al-Nakhibi said that armed groups that were trained in Iran and that have ties with the Houthi group infiltrated to peaceful protests and clashed with security forces in an Aden protest last week.