South Yemen bomb kills one during soccer cup

A roadside bomb in south Yemen killed one soldier and wounded two others riding in a military vehicle on Tuesday, an official said, a day after the state kicked off a regional soccer cup in the volatile south.

The army patrol car was hit in Lawdar, a city in the southern province of Abyan that has seen several military raids against suspected al-Qaeda militants.

Abyan's capital Zinjibar is hosting the 20th Gulf Cup along with the neighbouring coastal province of Aden. The government has put in place heavy security across the area, deploying tens of thousands of troops to prevent any violence.

After the explosion, Yemeni soldiers clashed with gunmen near the site. It was not yet clear who was behind the attack, the local official said.

Analysts see this week's tournament as a test of Yemen's control over its troubled south, though state officials have said safety will be ensured at the event.

More than 30,000 Yemeni troops were deployed before the tournament to maintain calm in the south, which in recent months has seen clashes as the state struggles to subdue both a rising southern separatist movement and Islamist militants.

The impoverished Arabian Peninsula state, a neighbour to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, said it had spent around $1 billion on the soccer event.

Yemen, also trying to maintain a shaky truce with rebels in the north, is a focus of Western security concerns after two US-bound parcel bombs were intercepted in Britain and Dubai in October, a plot claimed by al-Qaeda's Yemen-based regional wing.

Southern separatists have also threatened to organise mass protests during the soccer event, which hosts teams from Gulf states. They see it as a ploy to promote unity under president Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule.

The army on Sunday stopped a large separatist protest in the nearby province of Dalea, which turned violent as hundreds protested against the Cup. Scattered protests with only a few dozen people continued on Monday but were later stopped.

North and south Yemen united in a shaky 1990 merger under Saleh, but broke into a brief civil war in 1994. Many in the south, home to most of Yemen's oil wealth, say the state discriminates against them while exploiting their resources.