Yemen’s capital was rocked on Friday by fresh street clashes, with troops and tribal rivals trading machine-gun and artillery fire, witnesses said, as another six people were reported killed.
The fighting broke out in the northern Al-Hasaba district early morning soon after state television announced that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had returned to Sanaa after more than three months of medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.
Fighting also raged in other parts of the capital, witnesses said.
On Thursday, Al-Hasaba became the theatre of bloody clashes between gunmen loyal to powerful dissident tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar and followers of Saghir bin Aziz, a tribesman allied to Saleh.
After dying down during the night, the fighting resumed at dawn Friday, with witnesses reporting shelling and machine-gun fire in Al-Hasaba, and tribal sources saying Saleh’s forces were bombarding the district with mortars.
An Ahmar tribal source said four people were killed in Al-Hasaba, while medics reported two people killed when a shell smashed into Change Square, epicentre of anti-Saleh protests in the centre of Sanaa.
The latest deaths bring the toll since the latest surge of fighting erupted in Sanaa on Sunday to 101, according to a tally of figures given by medics and tribal sources.
Friday’s fighting comes ahead of the weekly Muslim main prayers, which traditionally are followed by rival rallies attended by tens of thousands of Saleh supporters and those opposed to him.
In Taez, southwest of Sanaa, one person was killed and two wounded when a shell struck among anti-regime protesters in Liberty Square, while a hotel caught fire, demonstrators said.
The 69-year-old Saleh, who has faced since January massive street protests demanding he step down, was hospitalised in Riyadh on June 4, a day after being wounded in a bomb attack on his Sanaa compound.
On September 12, he authorised his deputy to negotiate a power transfer as part of a Gulf Cooperation Council initiative to end the political stalemate that has gripped his country since January.
The latest bloodletting has stalled the peace deal. GCC chief Abdullatif al-Zayani, who had been hoping earlier in the week to persuade all sides to sign on to the pact, left Yemen empty-handed on Wednesday.
