SANAA, 14 March 2004 — Three Yemeni policemen and two armed tribesmen were killed and scores of others wounded in a shootout after an arms control incident flared up in the central province of Al-Baydha yesterday, local officials said.
The shooting broke out when dozens of tribesmen gathered to protest the arrest of a fellow tribesman, the officials said, who spoke to Arab News on condition of anonymity.
They said the firefight took place outside a school hosting a meeting for a municipal board of Radaa city, some 130 kilometers south of Sanaa.
The tribesman was arrested on Friday after he confronted policemen enforcing a a 10-year-old ban on carrying weapons in cities.
Armed clashes are not unusual in Yemen, a largely tribal society where men carry firearms publicly and tribes often settle disputes with guns.
Five people were killed and 30 injured on March 5 when an armed man opened fire and hurled a grenade at a village mosque in the neighboring province of Dhamar.
In 1995, the authorities slapped a ban on carrying weapons inside cities, and security forces have been launching periodic disarmament campaigns since then.
