At least one soldier was killed when an armed group launched an attack on Saturday night against a security facility in troubled southern Yemen, where secessionism is simmering, the ruling party's website Almotamar.net reported on Sunday.
Security force soldier Ali Salim al-Marqashi was killed when the armed group belonging to the so-called Southern Movement attacked the headquarters of security corps in Abyan province, Xinhua reported.
The group was attempting to break into the security facility's prison on Saturday to release one of their members who had been arrested for alleged crimes and murders in Jaar city of Abyan, about 427 km south-east of the capital Sanaa.
The security forces clashed with the group and seized one of their vehicles loaded with grenades, the website said.
Although the armed group which failed to break into the prison, they succeeded in kidnapping the Deputy Governor of Abyan, Adel Hamoud al-Sabri, News Yemen website quoted the administrator of Khanfar district Ahmed al-Rahawi as saying.
The security forces are chasing the outlaw group to bring them to the justice, said Rahawi.
The South Movement claimed to have been dispossessed by their northern brothers and repeatedly complained that the country's President had fired many southerners from key government posts in favor of their own supporters.