Yemen to free rebel prisoners, clashes hit south

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen will free northern Shi'ite rebel prisoners within days under a truce to end a war that drew in Saudi Arabia last year, an official said on Thursday, while clashes with armed separatists erupted in the south.

Separately, a U.S.-born radical preacher, believed to be in hiding in southern Yemen where he has been targeted by air strikes, said jihad against the United States was a religious duty and told American Muslims to reconsider their loyalties.

A move by the government to free more prisoners would be a significant step toward cementing a fragile truce to end a northern war that has raged on and off since 2004, but analysts believe the deal is unlikely to last as it does not address the insurgents' complaints of discrimination by Sanaa.

The rebels had freed at least 170 government soldiers and tribal fighters on Wednesday, a day after Sanaa accused them of dragging their feet in implementing the slow-going truce deal to end the war, which has displaced 250,000 people.

"The Ministry of Interior is reviewing lists of prisoners and they are expected to be released in the coming few days," a government official told Reuters.

The official did not say how many prisoners would be freed, but independent sources said it could be several hundred.

Sanaa, struggling to stabilize a fractious country, has come under heavy international pressure to end the northern war and focus on fighting al Qaeda, whose Yemen-based arm claimed responsibility for a December attack on a U.S.-bound plane.

Western countries and neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability on multiple fronts in impoverished Yemen to launch attacks in the region and beyond.

Sanaa, shortly before the rebels freed their captives, had accused the insurgents of returning to some vacated positions and refusing to hand over landmines removed from the war zone.

A rebel spokesman denied the insurgents were obstructing truce implementation and said that they had resolved the prisoner issue on Wednesday by releasing Yemeni soldiers and tribesmen who fought alongside the state.

A military official, however, has said many more prisoners were still being held by the insurgents.

YEMEN CLERIC URGES JIHAD

Adding to the instability in the impoverished country, a U.S.-born radical cleric in Yemen linked to shootings at a U.S. army base and the failed plane bombing appeared to urge Muslims to wage a jihad against the United States in a fresh audiotape.

"To the Muslims in America, I have this to say: How can your conscience allow you to live in peaceful coexistence with a nation that is responsible for the tyranny and crimes committed against your own brothers and sisters?" the audiotape said.

U.S. counterterrorism officials said in late February they were considering adding Anwar al-Awlaki to the U.S. target list to kill or capture top militants if he appeared to pose a direct security threat.

CNN, which posted excerpts from the tape on its website, said it could not authenticate the recording but cited sources saying they believe the voice on the tape is his. It also outlines Awlaki's own path to radicalism.

"I eventually came to the conclusion that jihad (holy struggle) against America is binding upon myself just as it is binding upon every other able Muslim," Awlaki said on the tape.

Awlaki is believed to be living in Yemen, where he was one of a number of militants targeted in a December airstrike in a southern province.

Yemen, as well as battling al Qaeda, also faces separatist unrest in the south. Violence erupted in the flashpoint southern town of Dalea on Thursday when security forces shot dead a separatist protester during an anti-government demonstration, igniting armed clashes, witnesses said.

The witnesses said two other protesters were wounded, and a security source said two security men were hurt in the unrest.

North and South Yemen united in 1990, but many in the south -- home to most of Yemen's oil industry -- complain northerners have seized resources and discriminate against them.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden and Cynthia Johnston in Dubai; Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)