Witnesses Say Yemeni Troops Kill 20 Protesters

VOA News

May 30, 2011

Witnesses in southern Yemen say security forces have fired on opposition protesters in the city of Taiz, killing at least 20 people.

The witnesses said forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh stormed a protest camp Monday, as the government continued its crackdown on those calling for Saleh's ouster.

Several protesters were killed and dozens more wounded Sunday in Taiz when security forces and gunmen in civilian clothes opened fire on an opposition rally.

Meanwhile, a security official said Monday four soldiers have been killed and at least seven others wounded in an attack near Zinjibar, the third-largest city in Yemen. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.

Residents in Zinjibar, Abyan's capital, said Monday Yemeni warplanes have carried out airstrikes against Islamist militants. Hundreds of militants have tightened their grip on the city as dissident generals accused Saleh of surrendering Abyan province to "terrorists."

Residents also reported heavy clashes Sunday between government troops and the estimated 400 militants who have occupied the city. Witnesses say the militants have taken over a number of banks and government offices.

The Wall Street Journal cites Zinjibar residents as saying the fighters belong to local tribes, which for years have lived outside central government oversight. The residents say the militants do not belong to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, but want to set up a fundamentalist Islamic emirate in the south.

Opposition figures accused Saleh of deliberately abandoning Zinjibar to the militants in order to sow chaos and frighten the general population in order to remain in power. The president has warned that, without him, al-Qaida would seize control of the impoverished Gulf nation.

General Abdullah Ali Elewa, a former defense minister and a leader of the breakaway forces, also called Sunday for army units to join in the fight to bring down the president.

He was one of nine opposition military officers who signed what they called "Statement Number One," which urged loyalist forces to stand with the "peaceful, popular revolution."

In a sign of Saleh's eroding support, a brigade of the powerful Republican Guard announced it had defected to the opposition Sunday. The reported defection is the first among the country's elite troops, run by one of Saleh's sons.

Several explosions were heard in the capital, Sana'a, late Sunday in the Hasaba district, where loyalist forces have battled opposition fighters of the Hashid federation - Yemen's most powerful tribal organization - loyal to chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar.

It is not clear whether the blasts meant an end to a truce that had begun to take hold in Sana'a after days of heavy fighting between the two sides.

Saleh has faced four months of almost daily public protests demanding an end to his near-33 year authoritarian rule. The recent fighting has raised concerns that the months-long uprising against Saleh could escalate into a civil war.

Kidnap theory credible for French aid workers in Yemen

* Aid workers disappeared in southern province

* Yemen in throes of civil unrest

PARIS, May 30 (Reuters) - France said on Monday it was credible that three aid workers who disappeared in Yemen at the weekend had been kidnapped, although it had still not received any claim of responsibility.

The workers disappeared in Yemen's southern province of Hadramout on Saturday and a local security official said on Saturday they were believed to have been kidnapped. [ID:nLDE74R0CB}

"With each passing hour, the assumption it is a kidnapping gains credibility," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. "But without a claim of responsibility, it is still to early to draw definitive conclusions."

The three work for Lyon-based Triangle Generation Humanitaire in the Arabian Peninsula country, which has been in the grip of civil unrest for months.

Kidnappings of Western tourists or workers by tribes seeking ransom or concessions from the government have been frequent in Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries. Most of the hostages have been freed unharmed.

France has nine nationals already held overseas including four in the Sahel region, two in Afghanistan, two in Ivory Coast and one in Somalia.

Germany presses Yemen leader to sign departure paper

Muscat, May 29, 2011 - Germany appealed Sunday to embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over power and step down, saying the Arab nation risked civil war otherwise.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, visiting the Omani capital Muscat, said Saleh should sign a handover document drafted by mediators from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), of which Oman is a member.

Oman Foreign Minister Yussuf Alawi told reporters he remained hopeful that Saleh and the opposition would reach a peaceful compromise.

'There's a high risk that the continuing violence will suddenly turn into a civil war with many civilian victims,' said Westerwelle. 'Now is the time to hand over power.'

Pro-Saleh military units and armed tribesmen had earlier agreed a ceasefire after five days of armed clashes and were to begin withdrawing their fighting units Sunday from the Hasaba area of the capital Sana'a. The death toll in al-Hasaba was estimated at 120.

Saleh, who has ruled for 33 years, has faced violent protests for month. The tribally divided nation is the poorest on the Arabian peninsula.

Westerwelle, who stopped in Oman before an Asia tour, urged Oman to continue reforms to bring democracy. He praised the reform policies of Sultan Qaboos bin Said bin Said, saying the past 40 years had been a time not only of economic but also of political success.

He urged Muscat to continue reform 'resolutely.'

Pro-democracy protests in Oman have been more peaceful than in other nations shaken by the Arab Springtime.

Westerwelle's five-nation trip aims to boost Berlin's political and economic ties in the region. Arriving in New Delhi on Sunday, he will help prepare for the first joint India-Germany government consultations to be attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel later in the week.

On what is the minister's longest foreign tour to date, Westerwelle will also be visiting Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam before returning to Berlin a week from Sunday.

Islamic militants seize Yemen city, locals say

From Mohammed Jamjoom and Hakim Almasmari, CNN

May 29, 2011

(CNN) -- Yemeni security forces abandoned a key coastal city to Islamic militants, residents of the city told CNN Sunday, while a powerful rebel tribe kept up pressure on the government in the capital.

"The militants are everywhere and we cannot leave our homes," said a resident of the city of Zinjibar, east of Aden.

"They suddenly arrived and in large numbers. There were no clashes when they arrived on Friday night. We tried to complain to security forces but could not find them," said the resident, who asked not to be named for security reasons.

By Saturday, "hundreds" of masked militants controlled the main streets of the city, locals said.

Abyan province, where Zinjibar is located, is a hotbed of Islamic militancy in Yemen, a country which has become a key battleground against al Qaeda.

Witnesses in the city described the forces in control of Zinjibar as "Islamic militants" but did not specify that they were al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, in the capital Sanaa, both the government and the al-Hashid tribe say they have not reached a cease-fire agreement after days of street battles.

But a spokesman for the tribe says it is handing back key government buildings it has been occupying.

"Hashid tribes have given the government a number of buildings back after (President Ali Abdullah) Saleh promised not to use them to launch attacks on the tribes," Abdulqawi al-Qaisi said.

"However, this does not mean that a cease-fire has been signed," he said, saying it meant the tribe was "cooperating for a cease-fire to succeed."

Abdu Ganadi, a government spokesman, said earlier it would be "impossible" to reach a truce with the before they "hand over governmental property."

The government did not immediately confirm that the tribesmen left the government buildings, and neither side said which facilities were involved.

The powerful al-Hashid tribe rose up against long-time Saleh in the last week, after he backed out of a regionally brokered deal meant to ease him out of office and end months of demonstrations of the kind that have swept the Arab world this year.

Saleh has been resisting protests calling on him to step down after 33 years in power.

Mediators between the government and the tribe had set a deadline of 6 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) Saturday for a cease-fire between security forces and tribal factions.

But sporadic gunfire erupted in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa just moments after the deadline expired without a peace agreement, according to witnesses and a senior tribal leader involved in mediation efforts who was not authorized to speak to the media.

Witnesses described "light clashes" between the two sides, roughly 30 minutes after the deadline had expired Saturday night.

The city was calmer Sunday morning, witnesses said, but both sides insisted no deal had been reached.

Some residents had heeded calls to evacuate parts of their capital city Saturday in expectation of further clashes between the two groups, but most remained firmly entrenched in their homes, according to witnesses.

Elsewhere, three French humanitarian workers were kidnapped Saturday in the southern city of Say'oon, according to a senior Interior Ministry official in that city.

In a tense standoff, both the government and the head of the al-Hashed tribe, Sadeq al-Ahmar, had protection around their homes and headquarters on Saturday.

Security forces could be seen positioned outside government buildings, Sanaa International Airport, houses of ruling party officials and along main streets of the capital, witnesses said.

Nearly every main street in Sanaa has a checkpoint manned by security forces, they added.

Snipers were also perched on rooftops, particularly near the Presidential Palace, Republican Palace and the Central Security Forces headquarters located inside the capital.

The moves came one day after Yemen air force combat jets bombed tribal forces opposed to the embattled Yemeni president, according to a senior defense official.

At least seven air force bombers were deployed east of Sanaa to the district of Nehm, where two military compounds had been overtaken earlier by tribal fighters, said the official, who was not identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Ahmed Soufi, a senior advisor to Saleh, said 18 people were killed in the fighting.

The recent fighting has raised fears of a full-blown civil war in Yemen, an impoverished, arid and mountainous nation that has been a key U.S. ally in the battle against the al Qaeda terrorist network.

Yemen President, Tribal Chief Agree to End Clashes

VOA News

May 28, 2011

A mediator says Yemen's president and the country's most powerful tribal leader have agreed to end five days of urban gunbattles that threatened to push the country into civil war.

At least 115 people have died in the clashes.

The battles pitted President Ali Abdullah Saleh's security forces against those of Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, the leader of the Hashid tribe. The battles have become the most serious threat to President Saleh's grasp on power after three months of opposition protests.

The two sides have agreed to withdraw their forces from the Hassaba neighborhood in the capital, Sana'a starting Sunday morning.

The tribal leader, a former ally of Mr. Saleh, has joined the protesters who want the Yemeni president to step down after 32 years of authoritarian rule.

In another development, Yemeni security officials said three French aid workers are missing and feared kidnapped.

The French Foreign Ministry in Paris confirmed the disappearance of two women and a man in southeastern Yemen but did not confirm a kidnapping.