Thousands Flee Yemen as Battles Rage

Thousands of Yemeni residents were fleeing Sanaa as the fighting intensified between dissent tribesmen and forces of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in a fourth straight day.

Street fighting in Sanaa, which grew out of protests against Saleh’s rule since January, has killed at least 135 people in the past 10 days.
The headquarters of national airline Yemenia were burnt down in fierce fighting through the night, an AFP correspondent reported.
The offices of Suhail TV, a channel controlled by pro-opposition tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, were also destroyed.
Three shells also struck near the university campus in the city centre where opponents of veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh have been holding a sit-in since late January.
A truce announced last week on Friday and collapsed

on Tuesday lasting just four days before clashes resumed with each side blaming the other.
In Yemen’s second city Taez, south of Sanaa, activists planned fresh protests Friday a day after demonstrators took to the streets, for the first time bearing weapons.

Loyalist troops smashed a long-running sit-in in the center of Taez earlier this week, leaving more than 50 protesters dead, according to the UN human rights office.