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By Fatik Al-Rodaini
Sana'a, August 1, 2011- At least three people were killed and five others were wounded in renewed clashes between two tribes in Al-Hada'a, in Yemen's norhern province of Dhamar.
Tribal sources said that the clashes renewed on Monday between Bit Al-Hadem tribe and Bani Ahmed tribe.
The clashes between the two tribes in which heavy weapons have been used, resulted according to local observers in several dead and wounded fighters.
August 1, 2011-(AFP)
SANAA — Two tribesmen and two Yemeni soldiers were killed in fierce clashes on Monday near the strife-torn country second city of Taez, witnesses and the state news agency Saba said.
Witnesses said three tribesmen were also wounded, while Saba said four soldiers were among the army’s wounded evacuated by helicopter.
The fighting broke out early on Monday in a suburb north of Taez that links the city of four million residents to the tribal areas around it, said the witnesses.
The tribesmen destroyed an army tank and took control of another as fighter jets overflew the area, they said.
Last week, a brief ceasefire between pro-opposition armed tribesmen and security forces had collapsed on Thursday when clashes resumed, leaving one policeman dead.
Tribesmen, who say their aim is to safeguard protesters who demand President Ali Abdullah Saleh stand down, have battled loyalist security forces for the past two months.
Saleh, who has been in power since 1978, has been receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia since early June for wounds sustained in a bomb blast at his palace.
Protesters have since January been calling for Saleh to quit office.
In a statement on Sunday, Saleh reiterated his appeal for dialogue in a statement for Yemenis on the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
“There is no alternative to dialogue. This is the only way civilised people follow to achieve change and reform,” he said in the message carried by state news agency Saba.
He urged all political forces in Yemen to abandon violence in the hope that Ramadan will return peace and stability to the country.
Saleh’s opponents have been calling for him to be prevented from returning to power.
On Saturday, influential Yemeni tribal leaders announced the creation of what they have named the “Alliance of Yemeni Tribes,” a coalition to bolster six months of anti-Saleh protests.
ADEN, Yemen | MonAug 1, 2011 - (Reuters) - Yemeni war planes bombed a village in south Yemen on Monday, killing at least 13 people who a local official said were Islamist militants challenging army control in the flashpoint province of Abyan.
The army has launched an offensive against militants whom they suspect of ties to al Qaeda and who have seized several areas in Abyan in recent months -- including the provincial capital Zinjibar, which lies east of a strategic shipping lane where some 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.
But it has yet to recapture any significant territory other than an army camp near the coastal provincial capital.
Residents and a local official said warplanes twice bombed the village of al-Khamila, about 10 km (six miles) from Zinjibar.
As protests against Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh rule drag into their sixth month, Abyan has faced rising bloodshed, with the army fighting to regain control. About 90,000 people have fled the clashes.
Violence has also broken out near protest centres, where thousands of demonstrators have camped out for months. On Monday, residents of Taiz, some 200 km (125 miles) south of the capital Sanaa, said the army was shelling an area outside the city.
Opposition sources later told Reuters that air force planes attacked a tribal area outside Taiz, killing one civilian and wounding five. The air raid targeted tribesmen who have sided with protesters.
The Defence Ministry said on its website that pro-opposition gunmen had attacked several checkpoints in Taiz.
A security official told Reuters that two soldiers were killed and four hurt in the attacks.
With Saleh in hospital in Saudi Arabia since he was wounded in a bomb attack on his compound in June, a political stalemate has stoked tensions. In recent weeks, clashes in Taiz have broken out almost daily between state forces and pro-opposition tribesmen.
Eruptions of violence amid mass protests, and especially the militant threat in south Yemen, have kindled fear among foreign powers that rising turmoil on the doorstep of oil giant Saudi Arabia could be exploited by al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing.
Opposition leaders have accused Saleh of deliberately relinquishing parts of Abyan to al Qaeda-linked militants in a ploy aimed at persuading foreign powers that only he stands in the way of a militant takeover.
Sana'a, August 1, 2011- At least two people were killed and twelve others injured when the republican guard continued to shell villages in Arhab district on the outskirts of Yemen’s capital Sana’a late Sunday and early Monday, eyewitnesses said.
Several villages came under attacks as more army reinforcements arrived in the district following fierce battles over the past few days. On Thursday, tribes tried to take over the republican guard camp in the area triggering the army to carry out airstrikes killing scores of tribesmen and soldiers.
Clashes in Arhab have been non stop for the last month and at least 78 people have been killed, sources confirmed.
Sana'a, July 31, 2011- President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on the political forces on Sunday to stick with and implement a GCC-brokered power deal and the UN Security Council Declaration to solve the current problems in Yemen.
The call of Saleh, who is , being treated in Saudi Arabia for injuries after he survived an assassination attempt inside his palace in June, came in his speech to the nation on the month of fasting Ramadan.
Saleh backed out of signing the GCC West-backed plan that called for his ouster three times at the last minutes, the latest after his party and the opposition inked it in May.
"There is no alternative for a dialogue based on the national principles and constitution to achieve comprehensive reforms and lift our country out of its crises," he was qouted as saying by Saba.
Furthermore, Saleh urged all the Yemeni parties to seize the opportunity in Ramadan to start a constructive dialogue, saying violence is never a good way of change.
"I call on all parties to avoid violence and destruction whatever the reasons for these are. Violence reuslts only in violence, political disputes and wars, and at the end the people are the only victims," he said.
Reaching power should not be through inciting chaos, road closures, hampering the interests of the public and increasing their suffering through depriving them from basic services such as fuel, electricity and water, he was qouted as saying.
Praising the efforts of his deputy, Hadi, in solving the Yemeni problems and holding dialogue with the political forces, Saleh who has recently undergone a ninth surgery for burns in his body, urged the Yemeni political forces to put the country's interest above anything else.
