Yemen calls truce, explosions heard

[Guest guest]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/yemeni-government-opposition-sign-ceasefire-121244769.h\

tml

Yemen calls truce, explosions heard

By Mohamed Sudam in Sanaa and Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden | Reuters – 1 hour 25

minutes ago

SANAA/ADEN (Reuters) - Yemen's government signed a ceasefire with a dissident

general on Tuesday to try to end weeks of escalating bloodshed, but explosions

and gunfire could still be heard in the north of the capital.

A government official said the deal between President Ali Abdullah Saleh's

government and breakaway General Ali Mohsen would take effect at 3 p.m. (1200

GMT) on Tuesday, but residents of the Hasaba and Sofan neighborhoods in Sanaa

said they heard explosions after that time.

After months of protests against Saleh's 33-year rule, a standoff between Saleh

and an opposition of protesters, tribesmen and renegade soldiers tipped last

month into bloody street fighting. Previous truce accords have failed to hold.

Earlier on Tuesday, security forces opened fire on a protest march in the

capital Sanaa, killing two people, witnesses said. An opposition source said a

third person was killed in shelling by Saleh's troops in the Sofan district.

In separate fighting between state forces and opposition fighters in the city of

Taiz on Tuesday, eight civilians, including a child, were killed and more than

30 wounded, an opposition source said. The government said three members of its

security forces were killed there.

Under the ceasefire deal mediated by a local committee, both sides agreed to

dismantle armed checkpoints set up across the capital and release all those

kidnapped during months of anti-government protests.

Saleh has defied months of demonstrations inspired by protests across the Arab

world and refused to carry out a plan brokered by neighboring Gulf states to

step down. The United States and Saudi Arabia fear the upheaval is giving al

Qaeda's local wing more room to operate in the poorest Arab country.

The truce agreement came four days after a United Nations Security Council

resolution condemned violence in Yemen and urged Saleh to sign the Gulf

initiative to hand over power. Violence has not abated.

Saleh welcomed the Security Council resolution on Monday. He has backed out of

the Gulf initiative at the last minute three times and says he will transfer

power only to " safe hands. "

A Yemeni military plane crash-landed at an air base in Lahej province in the

south, killing nine passengers, including eight Syrian engineers and one Yemeni

engineer, according to doctors and army officials. A security official said a

technical fault was probably to blame for the crash of the Russian-made Antonov

plane, and the incident would be investigated.

Lahej borders Abyan province, where the Yemeni army is fighting to regain

control of territory seized by suspected al Qaeda militants, who have benefited

from political upheaval and weak central government control over parts of the

country.

Late on Monday, an Uzbek doctor was abducted in the northern province and tribal

stronghold of Maarib. A tribal source said the doctor had been kidnapped by

tribesmen to put pressure on the government to release some jailed comrades.

(Reporting by Mohamed Sudam in Sanaa and Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden; Writing by

Isabel Coles; Editing by Graff)