6 wounded as military uses machine-guns to disperse crowds

The funeral was for a man who died in custody a year ago Soldiers in Yemen shot dead one man and wounded six others on Friday at the funeral of an Al-Qaeda suspect who died in custody a year ago in the south of the country, medics and witnesses said. Jeyab al-Saadi was killed and six others were wounded, medics at Naqib hospital in the main southern city of Aden and witnesses told AFP.
The military used machine-gun fire to disperse thousands at the funeral of Ahmed Darwish, who was arrested after an attack on intelligence headquarters in Aden in June 2010 in which 11 people, including seven military personnel, were killed.
Al-Qaeda was suspected of masterminding the attack.
Darwish died in custody one day after bring detained. His body had been stored at a government hospital in the port city until Friday.
After the shooting, the funeral procession proceeded towards the cemetery, witnesses said.
In May, dozens of people staged a demonstration demanding the speedy trial of prison guards suspected of involvement in Darwish's death. A protester was killed by the army at that demonstration also.
Friday's shooting comes as battles have raged between the army and alleged Al-Qaeda militants in several parts of the country that is also seeing a massive uprising against the 33-year-old rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
At least 100 soldiers have been killed since violence erupted in the southern city of Zinjibar more than three weeks ago, and 260 more have been wounded, according to a military official.
The fighting in Zinjibar has sparked fears of a spillover of alleged Al-Qaeda militants into the strategic port city of Aden, prompting a heavy security deployment in the already tightly patrolled city.
Yemen is the ancestral homeland of late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The jihadists' local affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is blamed for anti-US plots including trying to blow up a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009.