ADEN - Five Yemeni troops and a colonel and seven militants died overnight in clashes in southern Yemen, and army artillery killed eight pro-government tribesmen by mistake, local and tribal officials said on Saturday.
The clashes took place outside Zinjibar, the center of the province of Abyan where militants have seized several areas, a local official told Reuters. The region lies east of an international shipping lane where 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.A tribal official said the army targeted the tribesmen which it mistook for militants as they approached Zinjibar in another area late on Friday.
The militants have posed a rising challenge in recent months to army control in southern Yemen.
