A total of seven Yemeni soldiers, including an army major, weretaken hostage by southern separatists in two incidents on Saturday and Sunday.

The kidnappers are apparently seeking to pressurise the authorities after a 25-year-old man, Fares Adbullah Saleh, was sentenced to death for two bombings.

The bombings, at a sports centre in Aden on October 11, killed four people and injured 15. They were seen as an attempt to disrupt the Gulf Cup football tournament which was held in southern Yemen between November 22 and December 5, guarded by about 30,000 troops.

In the trial, which ended on Saturday, Saleh's brother, Raed Abdullah, was sentenced to five years for complicity in the bombings and three other defendants were acquitted.

Nasser al-Khubaggi, a leading member of the Southern Movement, 
told Reuters that the people behind the kidnappings are "armed citizens who are angry at the detention of their children and relatives in state prisons, among them the man sentenced to death on Saturday for the bombing of the sports club in Aden".

Protests over the death sentence were also reported in the southern city of Daleh.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 13 Dec 2010. 

UPDATE, 14 December: Arab News, via Reuters, says six of the soldiers have been released.