More than 40 Yemenis were killed in pitched street battles in Sanaa on May 26 as fighting aimed at ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s three-decade-long rule threatened to ignite civil war. Residents were fleeing Sanaa by the hundreds, hurriedly fastening possessions to the roofs of cars, hoping to escape the violence that has killed more than 80 people since May 23. The fighting, pitting the security forces of President Ali Abdullah Saleh against members of the country’s most powerful Hashed tribe led by Sadiq Al-Ahmar, was the bloodiest Yemen has seen since protests began in January.
The battles threatened to spread into other parts of the capital Sanaa. The defence ministry said 28 people were killed in an explosion in an arms storage area of Sanaa at dawn on May 26. Fighters in civilian clothes roamed some districts and machinegun fire rang out sporadically. Sporadic explosions could be heard in the capital near the protest site where thousands of people demanding Saleh to leave after nearly 33 years in power are still camped. Black smoke from mortar fire mixed with a haze of pollution and dust that hangs over Sanaa like a shroud.