The government and the supporters of Sadiq al-Ahmar, the leader of the powerful Hashed tribe, accused each other of breaking the truce and bringing the embattled country closer to a civil war, according to Reuters.
“The ceasefire agreement has ended,” a government official told Reuters when asked whether an overnight exchange of fire between the two sides had broken the fragile truce.
Militants loyal to Mr. Ahmar regained control of Yemen’s ruling party building in the Hasaba district of the capital Sana’a where much of the fighting took place, Al Arabiya correspondent said.
The violence, pitting President Saleh loyalist forces against Hashed tribesmen, has been the bloodiest since pro-democracy unrest erupted in January and was caused by Mr. Saleh’s refusal to sign a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal.
Yemen is the poorest state on the oil-exporting Arabian Peninsula with about 40 percent of its 23 million people living on less than $2 a day.
The violence, pitting President Saleh loyalist forces against Hashed tribesmen, has been the bloodiest since pro-democracy unrest erupted in January and was caused by Mr. Saleh’s refusal to sign a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal.
Yemen is the poorest state on the oil-exporting Arabian Peninsula with about 40 percent of its 23 million people living on less than $2 a day.
Breaking Taez sit-in
Yemeni troops, meanwhile, fired live ammunition on protesters in the southern city of Taez on Tuesday to suppress a rally seeking an end to President Saleh’s reign, residents said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or death, but a Yemeni activist told Al Arabiya that at least five protesters have been killed on Tuesday.
On Monday, forces loyal to the embattled president killed 21 protesters as they crushed a sit-in demonstration in Taez, as suspected Al Qaeda gunmen killed six soldiers in the south, according to Agence-France Presse.
Security service agents backed by army and Republican Guards stormed the protest against Mr. Saleh in the city’s Freedom Square, shooting at demonstrators and setting fire to their tents, protesters said.
“At least 20 protesters have been killed,” one protest organizer said.
Another protester was killed when police and Republican Guards opened fire later Monday to prevent dozens of demonstrators from returning to the square, a protester said.
The four-month-old sit-in in Taez, south of capital Sana’a, was the longest-running protest against Mr. Saleh’s rule.
Troops backed by tanks also stormed a field hospital and detained 37 of the wounded receiving treatment there, among hundreds rounded up as security forces pursued the protesters into nearby streets, medics and organizers said.
“This was a massacre. The situation is miserable. They have dragged the wounded off to detention centers from the streets,” activist Bushra al-Maqtari told AFP.
Protesters said the square had been entirely cleared in Sunday’s raid, while security forces stormed a nearby hotel and arrested several journalists.
The official news agency SANA reported that Mr. Saleh met Sunday night the military leaders who remained loyal to him, calling them to “strongly resist and respond to the challenges” posed to him by “law-breakers and corrupt,” referring to the protesters.
The clashes erupted late on Sunday outside a police station near the Freedom Square protest site as around 3,000 people gathered to demand the release of a detained protester.
Police then fired warning shots into the crowd when the demonstrators refused to leave, a local committee of the “Youth of the Revolution” group said.
On March 18, 52 people died when regime loyalists attempted to break up a similar protest against Mr. Saleh’s rule in University Square in Sana’a. The president declared a state of emergency after the bloodshed.
More than 200 demonstrators have been killed since the protests first erupted in late January in Yemen. Scores more have died in armed clashes between loyalist troops and dissident tribesmen.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or death, but a Yemeni activist told Al Arabiya that at least five protesters have been killed on Tuesday.
On Monday, forces loyal to the embattled president killed 21 protesters as they crushed a sit-in demonstration in Taez, as suspected Al Qaeda gunmen killed six soldiers in the south, according to Agence-France Presse.
Security service agents backed by army and Republican Guards stormed the protest against Mr. Saleh in the city’s Freedom Square, shooting at demonstrators and setting fire to their tents, protesters said.
“At least 20 protesters have been killed,” one protest organizer said.
Another protester was killed when police and Republican Guards opened fire later Monday to prevent dozens of demonstrators from returning to the square, a protester said.
The four-month-old sit-in in Taez, south of capital Sana’a, was the longest-running protest against Mr. Saleh’s rule.
Troops backed by tanks also stormed a field hospital and detained 37 of the wounded receiving treatment there, among hundreds rounded up as security forces pursued the protesters into nearby streets, medics and organizers said.
“This was a massacre. The situation is miserable. They have dragged the wounded off to detention centers from the streets,” activist Bushra al-Maqtari told AFP.
Protesters said the square had been entirely cleared in Sunday’s raid, while security forces stormed a nearby hotel and arrested several journalists.
The official news agency SANA reported that Mr. Saleh met Sunday night the military leaders who remained loyal to him, calling them to “strongly resist and respond to the challenges” posed to him by “law-breakers and corrupt,” referring to the protesters.
The clashes erupted late on Sunday outside a police station near the Freedom Square protest site as around 3,000 people gathered to demand the release of a detained protester.
Police then fired warning shots into the crowd when the demonstrators refused to leave, a local committee of the “Youth of the Revolution” group said.
On March 18, 52 people died when regime loyalists attempted to break up a similar protest against Mr. Saleh’s rule in University Square in Sana’a. The president declared a state of emergency after the bloodshed.
More than 200 demonstrators have been killed since the protests first erupted in late January in Yemen. Scores more have died in armed clashes between loyalist troops and dissident tribesmen.
Battling Al Qaeda
At least seven soldiers were wounded in the ambush, a medic said.
As the army fought to regain the city, one militant was reported killed by a shell which crashed near Zinjibar’s museum and another wounded.
A security official said on Sunday that suspected Al Qaeda gunmen had taken control of most of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, in three days of fighting during which officials and medics said at least 21 people were killed.
Witnesses said aircraft were carrying out strikes on suspected Al Qaeda positions east of the city on Monday, amid unconfirmed reports of naval shelling in the Zinjibar area, close to the coast.
Four suspected Al Qaeda fighters were killed in overnight fighting in Zinjibar, another security source said, but a source close to the gunmen who control much of the city said only two were killed.
A leading tribal dignitary in Zinjibar, Tareq al-Fadhli, told AFP by telephone the situation there was “catastrophic,” with “corpses littering the streets, water and electricity cut off, and hospitals no longer functioning.”
Many residents have fled, he said.
“The gunmen claim to be part of the ‘Partisans of Sharia’ (Islamic law), which may be a coalition of armed groups,” said Mr. Fadhli, a former jihadist, adding they carried white banners bearing the same name.
The defense ministry’s 26sep.net, meanwhile, said the gunmen were believed to belong to Al Qaeda, and that 10 had been captured. Ninety-six cases of rockets were intercepted near Zinjibar, it added.
But dissident army commanders have accused the 65-year-old president of surrendering the province to “terrorists.”
And the Common Forum opposition coalition charged he had “delivered Zinjibar to groups that he has formed and armed, to continue to utilize the specter of Al Qaeda to frighten regional and international parties.”
(Abeer Tayel, an editor at Al Arabiya
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