SANAA: A Yemeni military official says fighting in the country's south between troops and tribesmen angry over a deadly shelling last week has killed eight people — five troops and three tribesmen.

The official says tribesmen belonging to a southern secessionist movement stormed the military barracks in the province of Lahj on Monday. The official says that along with the eight killed, four soldiers are missing.

Parts of southern Yemen, where the secessionist movement is strong, have been hit by unrest recently.

South Yemen was an independent state until unification with the north in 1990.