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Anti-government protesters in Sanaa yesterday. AP Photo/Hani Mohammed
Yemen

Airport closes as street battles rage between government and opposition in Yemen

It is reported that the country’s main airport in the capital of Sanaa is closed as fighting continues between government forces and the opposition looking to oust president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

DOZENS OF PEOPLE have been killed and injured in new street battles overnight in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.

Street battles between Yemeni government forces and armed tribesmen erupted on Wednesday as the country is teetering on the brink of civil war, forcing residents to cower in basements or brave gunfire to fetch bread and water.

Reuters is reporting that the fighting has led to the closure of Sanaa airport with no flights in or out of the capital city at present.

A Yemeni army officer who defected from President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s camp says that thousands of armed tribesmen who have joined the opposition have fought the Yemeni army about 10 miles from the city in an effort to push toward Sanaa.

He says the tribesmen captured 30 soldiers from the elite Republican Guard but released them later.

A Sanaa resident, Talal Hazza, says government forces continued shelling positions of pro-opposition Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar’s tribesmen in the capital’s Hassaba neighborhood on Thursday.

Nearly four months of mass protests calling for President Saleh’s ouster have exacerbated already dire poverty, shuttering businesses and forcing up prices of essential goods.

It’s a trend that does not bode well for long-term stability in this gun-ridden corner of the Arabian Peninsula, home to an active Al Qaeda branch and other armed Islamist groups.

Yemen’s mainly peaceful protests gave way to fighting last week between Saleh’s security forces and fighters loyal to the head of Yemen’s most powerful tribal coalition, Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar.

That was the tipping point that pushed the anti-government uprising toward civil war.

At least 41 people were killed Wednesday as clashes spread to new quarters of the city.

Witnesses said units of the elite Presidential Guard, commanded by one of Saleh’s sons, shelled the headquarters of an army brigade that guards government institutions, sending up columns of smoke and fire.

Army officers who have joined the opposition said they believed the move was a pre-emptive strike against a commander the government feared would join the movement to oust Saleh.

This is the latest in a number of growing signs that the military backing for president Saleh is in disarray as defections to the opposition continue.

- with reporting from AP