Sana'a: More than 20 Yemeni civilians, government troops and dissident soldiers were killed in overnight violence after President Ali Abdullah Saleh's latest pledge to step down, medics said on Wednesday.
The deaths in the capital Sana'a and the country's second largest city, Taez, came after Saleh told the US ambassador to Yemen he would sign a Gulf-brokered power transition plan to step down within 30 days.
The violence flared on Tuesday as the government's declaration of a truce with rival forces failed to materialise. A government statement released on the official state news agency said two civilians were killed on Wednesday in shelling of residential areas in Sana'a, blaming anti-government forces for the deaths.
In a separate statement on the defence ministry website, the government said nine of its soldiers fighting tribesmen and rival forces loyal to dissident General Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar were also killed.
Medical officials, meanwhile, said the overall death toll from violence from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning had reached 21, including a woman and her infant child who died in Taez when their house was struck by shells.
