الرئيسية
Anti-regime protesters display the slogan "We are all
Taez" on their palms during a protest in Sanaa last month. Five Yemenis
have been killed in shelling by government forces targeting the
country's second city of Taez and in shootings, as clashes threatened to
derail a fragile power-transfer deal.(AFP/File/Mohammed Huwais)
By AFP
SANAA (AFP) - Five Yemenis were killed on Saturday in
shelling by government forces targeting the country's second city of
Taez and in shootings, as clashes threatened to derail a fragile
power-transfer deal.
Protests also continued in the capital Sanaa
demanding that President Ali Abdullah Saleh be put on trial, in
rejection of an amnesty he was given for signing a Gulf-tailored peace
deal.
Three members of one Taez family were killed in shelling
blamed on government forces, while two anti-government gunmen were shot
dead during clashes with forces loyal to Saleh, witnesses said.
The
five bodies were taken to a field hospital in Al-Rawda neighbourhood in
central Taez, which is under the control of anti-Saleh protesters.
Saturday's
casualties take the death toll from clashes and bombardments by
government forces since Thursday to 30, after nine people, including a
young girl, two soldiers and colonel, were killed on Friday.
On Thursday, 16 others, including five soldiers and three gunmen, were killed.
The
escalation of violence came hot on the heels of an order by Vice
President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi late on Friday to cease fire and
negotiate a pullout of troops and militiamen from the city.
Hadi
now holds the constitutional powers of Saleh who last month in Riyadh
signed the Gulf-brokered power transfer deal under which his powers
passed to his deputy and he remains honorary president for three months.
Gunmen
backing anti-Saleh protesters control the centre of Taez and most of
its streets, while government forces have taken up position on hills
within the city and on its outskirts.
Witnesses said that forces
loyal to Saleh continued to pound most neighbourhoods in Taez, while
clashes raged in western parts of the city, including al-Hasab, Beir
Basha, Wasi al-Qadi and al-Murur.
The bloodshed sparked
recriminations between the government and parliamentary opposition,
which signed the hard-won accord in Riyadh last month that had raised
hopes of an end to the violence.
Prime minister-designate
Mohammed Basindawa, chosen by the opposition to head a government of
national unity under the power transfer agreement, has threatened to
resign unless the loyalist offensive against Taez stops.
And
opposition spokesman Mohammed Qahtan accused Saleh loyalists of blocking
the formation of a key commission also stipulated by the accord that is
to be given the task of reuniting the deeply divided security forces.
Hadi
late on Friday ordered the governor of Taez to begin talks with the
Common Forum opposition aimed at reaching a ceasefire and the withdrawal
of troops and militias from the city.
But its effectiveness is in question as the forces do not fall under the governor's authority.
As
well as most of Taez, dissident troops also control a large swathe of
the capital Sanaa, and there have been repeated deadly clashes with
loyalist units, some of them commanded by Saleh relatives.
Residents
decried the flow of military supplies to pro-Saleh troops from regions
surrounding Taez, which lies 270 kilometres (167 miles) southwest of
Sanaa.
Some took the matter into their own hands and blocked the roads, witnesses said.
In
al-Raheeda, 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Taez, locals, including
women and children, staged a sit-in on the main road obstructing a
military convoy heading to Taez from the southern Anad base in Lahij,
witnesses said.