Forty Dead in Yemeni Violence as Saleh Returns
More than 40 Yemenis died and dozens were wounded in two days of fighting in Sana’a between Yemeni forces and opposition members following the return to the country of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The casualty toll from an attack by Saleh loyalists on the Change Square protest camp in the center of the capital has risen to 18 dead and 54 wounded, said Mohammed al-Abahi, head of the field clinic at the camp. The attack began yesterday.
Shelling of the nearby headquarters of the First Armored Division, which backs protesters calling for the regime’s ouster, killed 11 soldiers and wounded 112 others, Abdul Ghali al-Shameri, a spokesman for the division’s commander, General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, said today by telephone.
Fighting in the northern Hasaba neighborhood has left 18 dead and 35 wounded, Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, chief of the Hashid tribal confederation, said in a statement today.
Demonstrations began in February in the Arab world’s poorest country, inspired by revolts that ousted the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, and deepened as military and tribal leaders joined the opposition. Efforts by Gulf Arab countries to broker a power-transfer agreement have failed.
Saleh returned to Yemen yesterday after three months in neighboring Saudi Arabia, where he was receiving medical treatment for injuries sustained in an attack on his compound in June. He called for a truce and a ceasefire so that a solution to the eight months of unrest can be reached through dialogue.
Yemen’s authorities “appeared to have lost effective control of parts of the country and within the major cities,” the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a report last week. It warned that Yemen was confronted by the prospect of civil war.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mohammed Hatem in Dubai at mhatem1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
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