الرئيسية
By Reuters
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni government forces shelled the city
of Taiz overnight, killing at least five civilians, residents and medics
said on Thursday.
After the shelling, gunmen allied with
opposition parties clashed with government forces, killing five soldiers
and wounding 15 others, a security source said.
President Ali
Abdullah Saleh was eased out of office last week under a Gulf-brokered
plan, after 10 months of anti-government protests, handing power to his
deputy.
The plan's sponsors hope it will halt a slide into civil
war on the doorstep of the world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia,
and prevent al Qaeda's regional branch from jeopardizing shipping routes
through the Red Sea.
But the deal ending Saleh's 33 years in power has so far failed to stop bloodshed in the impoverished Arab state.
Residents
said government forces shelled residential areas in Taiz, Yemen's
commercial capital located some 200 km (120 miles south of the capital
Sanaa.
"We are living in an atmosphere of real war. We couldn't
sleep from the intensity of the blasts. We came to the aid of five
residents of the quarter whose house a shell landed on," resident
Abdullah al-Sharaabi told Reuters by telephone.
A security
official dismissed the reports as "lies" and said "armed elements" had
attacked several security checkpoints in the city.
Medics at
al-Rawdah hospital said five civilians had been killed and several
injured. Staff at a field hospital in Taiz said it had received 10
injured civilians.
"Saleh's forces, which are concentrated in
various parts of the city, fired shells on al-Manakh and al-Hasab Wabeer
Basha districts and the shelling continued until the early hours of
Thursday morning," said lawyer Tawfeeq al-Shaabi, an activist in the
protest movement.
The opposition said it had submitted to the
country's interim leader Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi a list of its chosen
representatives for a military council tasked with running the army
until a new president is elected.
A presidential election has been set for February 21.
"We
gave Hadi a list of seven representatives of the opposition and they
include the former defense minister and the former interior minister,
along with five other senior army leaders who declared their support for
the protest movement demanding Saleh leave," an opposition source told
Reuters.
Under the Gulf initiative signed by Saleh, a body will
be set up to restructure the armed forces. Saleh's son Ahmed commands
the Republican Guard, one of the best equipped units.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Robert Woodward)
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni government forces shelled the city
of Taiz overnight, killing at least five civilians, residents and medics
said on Thursday.
After the shelling, gunmen allied with
opposition parties clashed with government forces, killing five soldiers
and wounding 15 others, a security source said.
President Ali
Abdullah Saleh was eased out of office last week under a Gulf-brokered
plan, after 10 months of anti-government protests, handing power to his
deputy.
The plan's sponsors hope it will halt a slide into civil
war on the doorstep of the world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia,
and prevent al Qaeda's regional branch from jeopardizing shipping routes
through the Red Sea.
But the deal ending Saleh's 33 years in power has so far failed to stop bloodshed in the impoverished Arab state.
Residents
said government forces shelled residential areas in Taiz, Yemen's
commercial capital located some 200 km (120 miles south of the capital
Sanaa.
"We are living in an atmosphere of real war. We couldn't
sleep from the intensity of the blasts. We came to the aid of five
residents of the quarter whose house a shell landed on," resident
Abdullah al-Sharaabi told Reuters by telephone.
A security
official dismissed the reports as "lies" and said "armed elements" had
attacked several security checkpoints in the city.
Medics at
al-Rawdah hospital said five civilians had been killed and several
injured. Staff at a field hospital in Taiz said it had received 10
injured civilians.
"Saleh's forces, which are concentrated in
various parts of the city, fired shells on al-Manakh and al-Hasab Wabeer
Basha districts and the shelling continued until the early hours of
Thursday morning," said lawyer Tawfeeq al-Shaabi, an activist in the
protest movement.
The opposition said it had submitted to the
country's interim leader Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi a list of its chosen
representatives for a military council tasked with running the army
until a new president is elected.
A presidential election has been set for February 21.
"We
gave Hadi a list of seven representatives of the opposition and they
include the former defense minister and the former interior minister,
along with five other senior army leaders who declared their support for
the protest movement demanding Saleh leave," an opposition source told
Reuters.
Under the Gulf initiative signed by Saleh, a body will
be set up to restructure the armed forces. Saleh's son Ahmed commands
the Republican Guard, one of the best equipped units.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Robert Woodward)