الرئيسية
Male and female anti-government protesters are separated
as they perform weekly Friday prayers during a rally to demand the
trial of Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa December
2, 2011. REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi
By Mohammed Ghobari, Reuters
SANAA (Reuters) - At least five civilians and three soldiers
were killed in the protest hotbed city of Taiz on Friday, and the head
of a new government meant to prevent civil war in Yemen said a week-old
political pact might unravel if the bloodshed went on.
A deal to
ease President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power has yet to defuse 10 months
of violent unrest over the autocratic leader's fate and the political
future of impoverished country.
Yemen's Gulf Arab neighbors and
their U.S. ally hope the deal can reverse a drift toward chaos on the
doorstep of the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and stop al
Qaeda's Yemeni branch gaining a foothold near Red Sea shipping routes.
In
Taiz in south Yemen, government forces shot dead three civilians, and a
fresh battle between government troops and gunmen backing protesters
killed two people trapped in their homes during fighting, protest
leaders and medical workers said.
Three government troops were
killed in what a security source called an attack by fighters tied to
the opposition and the Islamist Islah party, which has backed the
protests.
Witnesses said street battles with heavy weapons
including tanks raged near a police headquarters in the centre of Taiz,
and activist Tawfiq al-Shaabi said dozens of families had fled artillery
and small arms fire in western areas of the city.
At least 12 civilians, government soldiers and anti-Saleh gunmen were killed in Taiz in the previous few days.
As
the violence continued, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the vice president to
whom Saleh has transferred his powers, called on the provincial governor
in Taiz and opposition parties to agree a truce, state news agency Saba
said.
The earlier casualties in the city 200 km (120 miles)
south of the capital Sanaa included five civilians killed by pro-Saleh
troops during intense shelling of some Taiz neighborhoods, according to
residents and medical workers.
Protesters in Taiz are ringed by
troops loyal to Saleh as well as tribal forces and troops opposed to
him. Taiz's governor called for a ceasefire late on Thursday.
Mohammed
Basindwa, a former foreign minister designated by opposition parties to
lead a government to be divided between them and Saleh's party, said
his side would rethink its commitment to that pact if the killing in
Taiz did not cease.
In a statement, Basindwa said the killing in
Taiz was "an intentional act to wreck the agreement" that opposition
parties signed along with Saleh, who had backed out of signing the deal
brokered by Yemen's Gulf neighbors three times.
An official of
the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), a bloc of opposition parties that
signed the deal, said on Thursday they had agreed a cabinet line-up with
Saleh's party and the bloc's spokesman said this could be announced as
early as Saturday.
The official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said Saleh's party would take portfolios including defense,
foreign affairs and oil, while the opposition would get the interior,
finance and education ministries.
A completed transfer of power
would make Saleh the fourth Arab ruler to be toppled by mass public
protests that have reshaped the political landscape of the Middle East
this year.
RIGHTS GROUP CALLS FOR FREEZE OF ASSETS
The
prospective government is supposed to shepherd Yemen towards a
presidential election that Vice President Hadi has set for February 21,
2012.
In a statement, the JMP accused pro-Saleh forces of crimes
against humanity, and warned this may jeopardize pledges of immunity
from prosecution to Saleh and his circle, denounced by protesters, that
underpin the transition deal.
"All this will only escalate the
spirit of rejection within society against giving any guarantees or any
immunity to Saleh and his helpers," it said, demanding Hadi authorize a
military council tasked with running the armed forces until an election.
Opposition
sources said on Thursday they had given Hadi a list of their choices
for the council including former defense and interior ministers as well
as army commanders who turned against Saleh.
Under the Gulf
initiative signed by Saleh, the body will restructure the armed forces.
His son Ahmed commands the Republican Guard, one of the best equipped
units.
Human Rights Watch said last week that up to 35 civilians
had been killed in Taiz since a U.N. Security Council resolution in
October that endorsed the call for a power transfer and condemned the
crackdown on protesters.
The group said most of those civilians
were killed by artillery fire from Yemeni government forces, and called
on the U.N. Security Council to freeze the assets of top Yemeni
officials and distance itself from any promises of immunity.
Any
Saleh successor will face multiple overlapping conflicts that have
gained force during the political crisis, including rising separatist
sentiment in the south, which fought a civil war with Saleh's north in
1994, and fighting with Islamists who have seized territory in the
southern province of Abyan.
An official in Abyan said the head of
a volunteer force fighting Islamists was wounded and another person
killed when unidentified attackers hurled a bomb at him as he was going
to Friday morning prayers in the city of Lawdar.
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; Writing by Joseph Logan; Editing by Louise Ireland)