SANAA — A south Yemen separatist leader whose group is holding a pair of kidnapped soldiers implicitly warned yesterday they would be killed if two detained members of his group were not freed within 48 hours, the News Yemen website reported.
Taher Tammah, Southern Movement leader in Lahij province, said his group had “given 48 hours to authorities to free the detainees, otherwise it is not responsible for the soldiers’ lives,” the independent website reported.
Tammah called on authorities to free two, News Yemen reported. It identified one as Bassam al Sayed and the other only by his last name, Al Washanni.
The two soldiers were kidnapped in the Radfan district of Lahij on Saturday, a security official said.
Hours later, a soldier was killed by southern militants in the city of Jaada in the same province, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity and without elaborating.
Meanwhile, the security chief in the southern town of Al Mahfad in Abyan province, Col Khaled al Jaradi, escaped an ambush when his car was attacked yesterday, another security official said.
“A barrage of bullets hit the car of the Al Mahfad chief director, to which the escort patrol responded,” the official said, adding that the assailants escaped. No casualties were reported.
A special court sentenced seven Southern Movement activists to up to eight years in prison, a judicial source said yesterday. — AFP
