Yemen: Shells kill 13 in funeral tent in Daleh Published duration 27 December 2013

image copyright (C) British Broadcasting Corporation

Artillery shells have hit a funeral tent in the southern Yemeni province of Daleh, killing 13 people, reports say.

The funeral was for a man killed in clashes between Yemen's security forces and a southern separatist movement.

Witnesses told the AFP news agency that an army tank had fired the shells.

Tension between southerners and the authorities have increased in recent weeks following the killing of a local chief and his bodyguards at a checkpoint earlier this month.

South Yemen was an independent state until unification with the north in 1990, and a short civil war was fought in 1994.

In the aftermath of an uprising against the rule of President Saleh in 2011, separatist tensions have become more prominent and al-Qaeda has established strongholds in the south of the country.