More than 40 Yemenis were killed in pitched street battles in the capital on Thursday as fighting aimed at ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s
three-decade-long rule threatened to ignite civil war.
Residents were fleeing Sanaa by the hundreds, hurriedly fastening possessions to the roofs of cars, hoping to escape the violence that has killed more than 80 people since Monday. The fighting, pitting the security forces of President Ali Abdullah Saleh against members of the country’s most powerful Hashed tribe led by Sadiq al-Ahmar, was the bloodiest Yemen has seen since protests began in January. The battles threatened to spread into other parts of the capital Sanaa. The United States and Saudi Arabia, both targets of foiled attacks by a wing of al Qaeda based in Yemen, have tried to defuse the crisis and stem any spread of anarchy that could give the global militant network more room to operate. There are worries that Yemen could become a failed state that would undermine regional security and pose a serious risk to its neighbour Saudi Arabia. Tribal leader Ahmar told Reuters there was no chance for mediation with Saleh and called on regional and global powers to force him out before the Arabian Peninsula country of 23 million people plunges into civil war.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Group of Eight on Thursday called on Yemen’s president to quit. Summit host France said Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh must end his 33-year rule. For the United States, to whom Saleh was long an ally in its conflict with al Qaeda, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Paris: “We continue to support the departure of President Saleh who has consistently agreed that he would be stepping down from power and then consistently reneged on those agreements.”
