Saleh offers southerners carrots and sticks

Security forces stormed a government building in the town of Tor al-Baha that had been occupied by southern tribesmen, leaving two dead. In the southern province of Dalea, government soldiers killed two protesters in clashes. Four other people were wounded, including two soldiers.

The armed tribesman in Tor al-Baha had been occupying the building for months, Reuters reported. Saleh's government has shown that it is far from hesitant to use direct armed force against the separatists.

The action in the south has escalated as the government has been able to turn its attention away from Shi'ite Huthi rebels in the north, who are still abiding by a truce signed last month. Southern protesters feel ignored and discriminated against by the north.

Security forces in the city of Taiz used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters, Reuters reported, and cell phone networks in the south have been shut down "as a security measure," according to the government.

Ali Salem al-Bidh, a former Yemeni politician now living in Germany and a leading figure of the Southern Movement, offered some words on the clashes:

We warn Sana'a against continuing its aggression toward our people and we call on Arab countries and the United Nations ... to condemn these ugly crimes and to pressure this murderous and criminal regime to stop killing civilians and the innocent."

I haven't seen anything from Tareq al-Fadhli, the ex-jihadist and prominent southern sheikh who has publicly opposed Saleh but offered to assist the United States against al-Qaeda.

Thousands of protesters gathered in other cities across the south today. In recent weeks two other protesters have been shot dead and hundreds arrested. On Sunday, give gunmen forced their way into a government building in the south and killed one soldier. Though Saleh's government might be making some inroads with southern sheikhs and Saleh himself has pledged to make committees to talk with the southerners, the lack of a clear leader in the movement will probably make negotiations difficult. Fadhli, a potential figurehead for the southerners (if not the secessionists) lives in a de facto state of siege in his compound.

Saleh has also proven reluctant to seriously address southern grievances, and his own government's corruption would appear to make it hard to end the siphoning off of oil money -- oil being primarily produced in the south -- that angers the protesters.