South Yemen was once a separate country, and simmering tensions there have compounded Yemen's troubles as it struggles with a resurgent Al-Qaeda offshoot.

A spokesman for the southern movement, Abdu Al-Maatari, says around 5,000 protesters set fire to tires and blocked streets in the city of Al-Dhale on Wednesday before security forces cleared the crowds.

A day earlier, authorities arrested 70-year-old Hassan Bamoum, leader of the southerners' main faction, The Supreme Council for the Peaceful Southern Movement. A second protest drew 3,000 demonstrators in the city of Radfan.

Meanwhile, a US national of Somali origin, Sharif Mobaili, facing trial for murder and accused of being a member of Al-Qaeda, appeared in a court of the Yemeni capital on Wednesday.

The case was adjourned until Nov. 21 due to the absence of an interpreter, as was the case at the opening session on Oct. 20.

Mobaili, who worked at a US nuclear power plant, is accused of having killed one of his guards on March 7 and seriously wounding a second as he tried to escape from a Sanaa hospital where he was being kept under watch.

He had been arrested on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda.