Violence flared in southern Yemen yesterday after a month of relative quiet. 

Reuters reports that shelling and gunfire between security forces and southern separatists continued for over an hour in Zinjibar (Abyan province) around the house of a relative ofTariq al-Fadhli, the self-declared leader of the Southern Movement. 

According to NewsYemen, the clashes came after security forces detained one of al-Fadhli’s bodyguards and tried to arrest others in Zinjibar, apparently for stealing government vehicles, and protesters took over a government building "demanding the release of an imprisoned citizen".

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 29 September 2009.