Yemeni southern separatist gunmen shot dead a soldier on Sunday in the southern province of al- Dhalee, where secessionist sentiments are escalating, state media reported.
Yemeni ruling party's news website said the soldier Mahrous Hassan was shot dead by some gunmen related to the Southern Separatist Movement, a political force seeks to secede the south part of Yemen from the north, Xinhua reported.
"The soldier was riding his motorbike in the main street of al- Dhalee city, the provincial capital of al-Dhalee province, when the separatist gunmen fired two bullets on him which immediately killed him," almotamar.net quoted a local security official as saying.
Besides the resurgent al-Qaida regional wing and the fragile truce with northern Houthi-led Shiite rebels, Yemen has been facing growing troubles from the armed separatist movement in the south since 2007.
Northern and southern parts of Yemen unified in 1990 under a deal between the People's General Congress and the Yemeni Socialist Party. However, the deal fell apart which led to a crisis between the two allies and turned into a civil war in 1994.