Five people, including three soldiers, were wounded in south Yemen as protesters marched to demand the release of comrades arrested in pro-separatist rallies last week, witnesses and a news website said Sunday, Reuters reported.
Witnesses said hundreds of supporters of the opposition Southern Movement marched to call for the release of those arrested in Wednesday's protests in which at least one demonstrator was killed and eight wounded.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil exporter which adheres to a puritanical form of Sunni Islam, fear the unrest in Yemen may play into the hands of al Qaeda, which could exploit instability to carry out attacks.
Independent website Yemen News said three soldiers trying to disperse demonstrators and two protesters were wounded in two separate marches.
South Yemen united with the north in 1990, but separatist sentiment has been on the rise in the south, where many people feel marginalized politically and economically despite their region holding most of the poor Arab country's oil resources.
The protests in the south coincide with a war in Yemen's far north between the army and insurgents of the Zaydi Shi'ite sect since early August.
Zaydis make up about one third of Yemen's population of about 23 million people, mainly Sunni Muslims.
The northern rebels say they face religious discrimination by Sunni fundamentalists who have gained in strength because of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's close ties to Saudi Arabia.
The rebels posted video footage on the Internet of a fighter plane they claimed to have shot down. State media said Friday the plane flew into a mountain due to a technical fault.
The video showed the remains of an aircraft burning in a field as dozens of men stood around shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is great). There were low-lying hills in the distance.
It showed the pilot's identification card and a parachute he had tried to escape with. The pilot's fate was not clear.
"The location where the plane fell makes it clear that the plane exploded in the air with parts scattered around," the rebels said on their website, adding they brought the plane down with an anti-aircraft gun.
Five hurt in south Yemen protests: reports
