ADEN (AFP) – A Yemeni woman was killed and eight policemen wounded in two separate attacks in south Yemen, security officials said on Thursday.

Five policemen were wounded in an explosion on Wednesday when a masked biker hurled a hand grenade through the window of a police station in Zinjibar, the main city of Abyan province, a police officer told AFP, adding that the assailant managed to escape.

A medical official at Al-Razi hospital in neighbouring Jaar town said two of the policemen were critically wounded and had been transferred to a hospital in Aden.

Meanwhile, a woman was killed and two police officers wounded on Wednesday when a wanted southern militant fired at a security patrol which was attempting to arrest him in Al-Afar area of the Lahj province, the defence ministry news website 26Sep.net reported.

Jamil Ali Saif, who is wanted for murder, escaped, a security official was quoted as saying, after the police refrained from firing at him to avoid harming civilians in the vicinity.

The latest violence comes two days after masked men armed with AK-47 assault rifles gunned down a Yemeni intelligence officer in a market in Zinjibar before fleeing.

South Yemen is feared to have become a base for Al-Qaeda militants to regroup, under the network’s local franchise Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The south is also the site of frequent protests and periodic unrest with many southerners complaining of discrimination by the Sanaa government over the allocation of resources.

It was independent from 1967 until 1990 when it united with the north. It seceded in 1994, sparking a short-lived conflict which ended with the south bring overrun by northern troops.