Regional protests, pirates rock Yemen

A Yemeni man was killed and four others injured when a bomb exploded May 3 among protesters in the south. Authorities said the bomb appeared to have been carried by a protester and it exploded accidentally during the clashes in the southern town of Dali. A day earlier, five soldiers and two civilians were killed in the southern town of Radfan after local tribesmen clashed with soldiers attempting to set up checkpoints in the area. The US Embassy urgently appealed for dialogue as regional protests shake the nation. (AP, May 4)

Yemeni navy commandos May 4 stormed a hijacked a tanker in the Gulf of Aden, killing three Somali pirates and capturing 11 others, according to the country’s defense ministry. The ship, the Qana, had been seized by pirates the previous day. The commando raid followed a similar action a day earlier to free three smaller hijacked ships. That operation freed the ships and left two pirates dead. (AHN, May 4)

See our last posts on Yemen and Somalia and the pirates.

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