YEMEN’S CAPITAL has been rocked by a night of deafening explosions and gunfire as troops loyal to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, fought with rebel tribesmen and defected soldiers for control of the city.
The violence was some of the fiercest in months and has prompted fears that the fate of the country’s nine-month civilian uprising may be sliding into the hands of Yemen’s fractious armed forces.
The fighting broke out at about 11pm on Sunday with sporadic bursts of gunfire. By dawn a series of huge explosions had ripped through buildings in the north, echoing around the surrounding mountains.
Three teenage protesters were severely wounded when a hail of rockets thudded into Change Square – the tented shantytown in central Sanaa where thousands of demonstrators have camped out since February calling for Mr Saleh’s resignation. It is the fourth time in the past month that shells have fallen on the camp.
“Their wounds are appalling,” said Anas Noman, a third-year medical student volunteering in the camp’s mosque, now a field hospital. “We’ve transferred one of them to a nearby hospital for an amputation of his leg.”
It was unclear yesterday exactly how many had died as a result of the latest violence.
A brutal crackdown by security forces on a pair of mass rallies over the weekend has turned into a full-blown military confrontation between the Republican Guard – an elite force headed by Mr Saleh’s son Ahmed – and the 1st armoured division, headed by Gen Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar, who defected to the opposition in March. On Sunday night the two sides started firing mortars and anti-aircraft missiles at each other’s military bases, sending plumes of black smoke rising above the city.
“This is far more complex than just unarmed protesters versus heavy-handed government troops. It’s now a power struggle between elite military factions,” said Abdullah al-Faqih, a professor of politics at Sanaa University. “Unfortunately it is the unarmed protesters who are caught in the middle and are paying the price for the violence.”
The most intense fighting took place in the northern neighbourhood of Hasaba, where a group of heavily armed rebel tribesmen are battling to defend the official residence of their influential leader, Sadeq al-Ahmar, who is also backing the opposition.
Ali Hussein, the owner of a small grocery shop on the southern outskirts of Hasaba, said that shells and bullets were “falling like rain” on people’s houses. “Even the lampposts have bullet holes in them,” he said.
Sanaa is nestled between four mountains, all of which are controlled by government troops. Locals say Mr Saleh has been using these vantage points to launch rocket attacks on his opponents.
The surprise return in late September of Mr Saleh, who had been recovering in Saudi Arabia from an assassination attempt, has plunged the country into a deeper state of uncertainty and sharpened the differences between pro- and anti-government camps. – ( Guardianservice)