Secessionist gunmen attack gov't compound in southern Yemen, 3 injured

A group of secessionist gunmen opened fire at a government compound in Yemen's southern province of al-Dhalea on Sunday morning, leaving at least three security personnel injured, a security official told Xinhua. The secessionist gunmen, armed with machine guns and grenades, attacked a fortified government compound in downtown al-Dhalea province, injuring at least three security personnel, the security official said, requesting anonymity. "Several government officials and army officers holding a meeting inside the local council headquarters were the targets of the armed attack, but security troops repelled the gunmen," the source added. "The attackers were the same ones who ambushed a military patrol earlier in the day in the city," he added. In another incident, a roadside bomb targeted a bus carrying government employees in the neighboring southern province of Lahj, an army officer told Xinhua anonymously. No reports about casualties or injures were available, the army officer said. North and South Yemen unified peacefully in 1990, but their relationship deteriorated in 1994. Calls for separation in the country's southern regions were renewed in 2007. Southerners have complained of being marginalized, particularly since they lost the four-month civil war in 1994. Pro-secession protests have multiplied in the south amid a worsening economic situation in Yemen and charges of discrimination in favor of northerners. Some factions of the pro-secession Southern Movement want autonomy for the country's south, but more hard-line members are pressing for a return to complete independence.