Street fighting raged in Yemen's capital on Tuesday after a tenuous cease-fire between tribal groups and forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh broke down, edging the impoverished Arab state closer to civil war. Global powers have been pressing Saleh to sign a Gulf-mediated deal to hand over power to stem spreading chaos in Yemen, a haven for al Qaeda militants and neighbour to the world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia. The turmoil was a factor keeping up oil prices on Tuesday, traders said.
"The cease-fire agreement has ended," a government official said on Tuesday, adding that tribal groups had seized a government building. UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said her office had received as yet not fully confirmed reports that more than 50 people had been killed by Yemeni government forces since Sunday.
On Tuesday, there were three main flashpoints in the troubled country - street fighting in the capital, government troops gunning down protesters in Taiz and a battle with al Qaeda and Islamic militants in the coastal city of Zinjibar. Later on Tuesday, heavy explosions rocked a northern district of Sanaa that houses the headquarters of an army division headed by Ali Mohsen, an influential general who has joined the opposition, residents said.
"I think it is the first time missiles are being used in the street battles," a resident said, referring to the loud blasts. A government spokesman earlier suggested breakaway army units had attacked the ruling party's headquarters in Sanaa. "What was new in today's clashes is the use of armoured vehicles ... which the Ahmar (tribesmen) don't have," Abdu al-Janadi, a deputy information minister, told Reuters.
Sporadic fighting with tribesmen continued in the nearby Hasaba district, where residents took refuge in basements. Battles in the capital overnight brought an end to a truce between Saleh's forces and tribesmen brokered at the weekend after more than 115 people were killed street battles last week.