Civilians killed in Sanaa shelling

SANAA: Shells fired into a popular shopping district of Yemen's capital killed two civilians on Tuesday as demonstrators called for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to be put on trial, witnesses and medics said.

The two shells slammed into Hayel Road late in the morning as the area was packed with shoppers and pedestrians, killing one man, and wounding two others the witnesses said.

A medic in Sanaa confirmed that one man died immediately and a second later succumbed to his wounds.

Hayel Road is in a part of the capital controlled by the first armoured division of the army, headed by prominent General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar who defected in support of anti-regime protesters.

Control of Sanaa is divided among three armed groups -- General Ahmar's division, Saleh loyalists and armed tribesman led by powerful tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar. It was the second such deadly attack in the capital during the past three days.

On Sunday, a seven-year-old girl was killed by a rocket that hit a school in central Sanaa. Tens of thousands of people marched in Sanaa's Sittin Road on Tuesday calling for Saleh's ouster and trial, witnesses said.

"The people want a new Yemen," they chanted. "The people want the slaughterer brought to justice."

In Yemen's second city of Taez, elite Republican Guard troops randomly shelled the city centre on Tuesday, wounding three civilians, medics and residents told AFP.

In the restive southern city of Zinjibar, meanwhile, four soldiers were killed and six were wounded in overnight battles between the army and suspected Al-Qaeda militants, a military official said.

Three of the militants were also killed, a local official said.

Fears have mounted about Al-Qaeda taking advantage of Sanaa's weakening authority in the face of nearly nine months of deadly protests against Saleh's regime to bolster its presence in Yemen's south.

Hundreds of militants from the Al-Qaeda-linked Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) group overran Zinjibar, Abyan's capital, in May and the city and adjacent towns have since been the scene of bitter fighting with the army.

Saleh, in power for 33 years, has so far refused to resign despite the wave of popular protests that has swept the country since January demanding that he step down.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, who arrived in the country last month to try to resolve the deteriorating political crisis, left Sanaa on Monday without managing to broker a solution. (AFP)