A gunman shot dead four people and wounded seven others in a mosque in south Yemen, security and tribal sources said Wednesday in the latest bloodshed tied to municipal elections on February 20.
The attack followed a dispute between two tribes over candidates for the first municipal elections since the country was reunited in 1990, tribal sources said.
The man, said to be a member of the opposition al-Islah Islamic party, burst into the mosque in the village of Shueib, in Lahj province, 250 kilometers north of Aden on Tuesday night.
He opened fire with a pistol killing four people and wounding seven more, some seriously, and then ran off, the security sources said.
Yemen has seen a string of incidents involving heavily armed tribesman in the run-up to the elections which will be held on the same day as a referendum on constitutional amendments.
Three people were killed, including a child, as armed clashes broke out last week in Omran province, north of the capital, between rival tribes embroiled in a political dispute.
On January 10, armed men shot dead nine Muslims as they knelt in prayer at a mosque north of the capital after a stormy debate over candidates for the elections.
A total of 60,000 police and soldiers as well as 30,000 reservists have been mobilized to ensure order in Yemen's heavily armed tribal population, with election-related violence having already claimed at least 18 lives -- ADEN, Yemen (AFP)
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