Three Soldiers Killed in South Yemen Ambush

A Yemeni army officer and two of his troops were killed in an ambush by gunmen near the southern port city of Aden on Saturday, military sources said.

They said the unidentified assailants opened fire with automatic weapons on a jeep in the village of Thalaet, west of Daleh, killing Lotf al-Mazlum and two soldiers as well as wounding two civilians, witnesses said.

The attack took place in a region that is a stronghold of the Southern Movement, which seeks independence for south Yemen, which was a sovereign state prior to unification with the north in 1990.

Also in Aden, dozens of young protesters and human rights activists rallied calling for an "end to violence" in the city of Zinjibar, a city hit by air raids and abuse of civilians by armed groups linked to al-Qaida.

"We demand the departure from the city of armed groups and the return of those displaced," said Linda Hosni, an activist who took part in the protest.

Six Zinjibar residents died after drinking water from a well contaminated by a bomb that fell inside it two days previously, said the city's deputy health officer Nasser Bellil.

Zinjibar has been in the hands of suspected al-Qaida militants since late May.

"Residents only discovered the device after six people had died," Bellil told Agence France Presse, adding that he was concerned for the health of those who remain there.