Four Yemeni civilians killed as clashes between Saleh’s forces and tribesmen renewed

Clashes between supporters and tribes opposing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh raged on in the capital Sanaa on Thursday killing four more civilians, the official Saba news agency said, taking the death toll since Monday to at least 48, Agence-France Presse reported on Thursday.

As Yemen's embattled president vowed Wednesday not to step down, the US urged its government employees to leave the country.

"The State Department has ordered all eligible family members of US government employees as well as certain non-emergency personnel to depart Yemen," it said in a travel warning.

It warned Americans "of the high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities and civil unrest.

"The Department urges US citizens not to travel to Yemen. US citizens currently in Yemen should depart while commercial transportation is available," it said.

President Barack Obama earlier Wednesday repeated his call for Mr. Saleh to step aside as pitched battles were fought between tribal groups and security forces in Sanaa.

Tribesmen loyal to a powerful opposition chief have seized public buildings in Sana’a including state news agency Saba, sources said Wednesday, amid raging gunbattles with Yemen’s security forces that have killed 44 people.

The tribesmen have also occupied the national airline Yemenia building and have tried to storm the interior ministry headquarters, according to the witnesses and a high-ranking Yemen official.

The latest fighting came despite an appeal late Tuesday by President Ali Abdullah Saleh for supporters of Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, who heads the powerful Hashid tribal federation, to “cease their aggression on security forces.”

Witnesses said that the house of the Yemeni tribal leader in Sanaa was severely damaged after the overnight fighting. The clashes according to tribal sources and state media left 24 people dead.

A number of residents were Wednesday seen fleeing Sana’a southwards, hoping to escape the fighting as well as electricity and water shortages, an Agence-France Presse correspondent said.

Thirty-eight people were killed Tuesday in ongoing clashes between armed clansmen and government forces in a northern district of the Yemen capital Sana’a, according to a new toll from medical and government sources.

Three tribal dignitaries were among 24 supporters of tribal chief Ahmar who were killed, and dozens of others were wounded, a hospital source told AFP.

Al Arabiya TV also reported that 24 of al-Ahmar’s guards were killed.

The defense ministry said on its website, citing the Interior Ministry, that 14 soldiers were killed and two were missing in the fighting.

An earlier toll said at least six were dead Tuesday in a second day of fighting between supporters of Sheikh Ahmar and forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

“The clashes were violent. The sound of machinegun and mortar fire could be heard everywhere. I saw smoke rising from the entrance of the interior ministry,” one witness told Reuters.

“The president has made an appeal to ... the Ahmars and security men to cease fire and, called on armed elements to withdraw from the ministries that they are occupying,” Abdu al-Janadi, a deputy information minister, told a pan Arab TV.

“The attack on (al-Ahmar’s) house ... is a symptom of the hysteria experienced by President Saleh and his entourage and their insistence on engulfing the country in a civil war,” the opposition coalition said in a statement, according to Reuters.

The fighting with weapons of all calibers was concentrated around the residence of Sheikh Ahmar, held by backers of the dignitary who went over to the opposition, and the Interior Ministry buildings.

Shortly after midnight the crackling of automatic arms fire could still be heard ringing out throughout the neighborhood, residents told AFP, hunkered down at home.

Earlier, Yemen’s wealthy Gulf neighbors on Tuesday demanded an immediate halt to the bloody clashes between regime supporters and Ahmar’s clansmen.

“The fighting in Sana’a during the last two days is a source of concern for the GCC who fear that it may spread,” said Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani.

Mr. Zayani, who has been promoting a plan which he brokered that would see President Saleh, 65, leave office within 30 days, urged the rival camps to show restraint.

Two days of clashes in the capital between backers of Sheikh Ahmar and security forces had already killed at least 12 people, tribal sources said.

Hours after their comments a missile slammed into Sheikh Ahmar’s Sana’a home causing casualties, another tribal source said.

“The home of Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar was hit by a missile and there were several dead or wounded,” the source said.

“Among the wounded was General Ghaleb Gamash, who was leading a mediation mission,” according to AFP.

Sheikh Ahmar, who heads the Hashid tribal confederation, the largest in the 24 million-people poor nation and a former crucial source of support for the embattled president, pledged his support for the opposition in March.

He accused Mr. Saleh, who is facing mounting pressure to quit office after 33 years, of trying to spark a “civil war” in an attempt to remain in power.

Machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire gripped the al-Hasaba neighborhood of north Sana’a where the sheikh’s home is located, an AFP correspondent said.

Heavy shelling also targeted tribesmen stationed at several government buildings including the trade and industry ministry, a tribal source close to the sheikh said.

Heavy gunfire was heard near the rebel chief’s home where dignitaries from the powerful Bakil and Hashid tribal confederations had gathered in his support.

Most of the dignitaries had insisted on a peaceful solution to end the violence that killed six people Monday, although tribal mediators have so far failed to secure a ceasefire.

Mr. Saleh on Sunday warned of civil war in the deeply tribal country as he refused to ink a Gulf-brokered accord under which he would cede power within 30 days in exchange for immunity from prosecution for himself and his aides.

Sources close to Sheikh Ahmar said the fighting had broken out on Monday after security forces tried to deploy around his residence and his gunmen retaliated.

A security official said the gunmen broke into a nearby school and police responded.

The conflicting accounts could not be independently verified.

One of the 10 sons of Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar, who was until his death President Saleh's main ally, al-Ahmar is capable of rallying thousands of armed supporters, tribal sources say.

Yemen has an estimated 60 million firearms in private hands, roughly three for every citizen.

The country’s opposition vowed on Monday to step up street protests, while insisting on efforts to avoid violence.

Since late January, security forces and armed Mr. Saleh supporters have mounted a bloody crackdown on protests demanding his ouster, killing at least 181 people, according to a toll compiled from reports by activists and medics.

The daily Asharq Alawsat said Saudi Arabia was still hoping the deal could be signed at the “earliest opportunity.”

The United States and Saudi Arabia, both targets of foiled attacks by a wing of Al Qaeda based in Yemen, are keen to end the Yemeni stalemate and avert a spread of anarchy that could give the global militant network more room to operate.
The US sends some $300 million in annual aid to the impoverished country on the Arabian peninsula.

Mr. Saleh, playing on Western fears of chaos, blamed the opposition for the deal’s collapse and said that if a civil war erupted “they will be responsible for it and the bloodshed,” according to Reuters.

While President Saleh has backed out of previous deals aimed at easing him out of power, Sunday’s turnabout appeared to be among the most forceful, coming after loyalist gunmen trapped Western and Arab diplomats in the United Arab Emirates embassy for hours.

(Abeer Tayel, an editor at Al Arabiya, can be reached at:[email protected], Dina al-Shibeeb, an editor at Al Arabiya, can be reached at: [email protected])