ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni security forces backed by armored vehicles and tanks raided on Saturday afternoon a hideout of the pro-secession Southern Movement in the port city of Aden amid heavy gunfire, witnesses said.
Fierce armed clashes erupted between security forces and pro- secession gunmen after the operation against the secessionist camp in the al-Mansoura district in Aden, the witnesses told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
A local medic at a nearby hospital told Xinhua anonymously that two civilians were killed during the random shooting by security forces.
A local security official said anonymously that "soldiers tried to remove cement barricades scattered across the city in an attempt to open the long-blocked streets, but gunmen attacked the soldiers with grenades."
Two soldiers were seriously injured during the secessionist attack, the official said.
Heavy gunfire could still be heard over the al-Mansoura neighborhood, according to local residents near the scene.
A number of Yemen's southern and eastern provinces experienced during the past few days deadly armed clashes and acts of violence, when anti-government groups interrupted the presidential election which took place last Tuesday.
South and north Yemen unified peacefully in 1990, but the relationship deteriorated in 1994, when a southern insurgency was quelled in a civil war. Calls for separation in the country's southern regions were renewed in 2007.
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