Sana'a: Two Yemenis were killed during a third straight day of shelling in the protest hotbed of Taiz, residents said, raising the death toll from clashes between troops loyal to outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh and opposition fighters to at least 17.
Saleh handed over power last month to vice-president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, seeking to end ten months of opposition to his rule that paralysed Yemen.
But the violence shows no sign of abating.
Tens of thousands of residents defied the shelling to march in Taiz city centre demanding that Saleh be put on trial.
Residents said government forces used artillery, tanks and rockets yesterday in residential areas of Taiz, trapping about 3,000 families in the commercial hub some 200km south of the capital Sana'a.
Opposition fighters responded with medium and light fire, they said.
Medics said two people were killed, one of them an activist shot by a sniper during the demonstration. The second was a bakery worker killed in front of his shop. A woman was also wounded.
An official from Saleh's party said the latest violence followed differences with opposition parties over the composition of a military committee agreed last month as part of the transitional deal following Saleh's departure.
Ten people died in fighting on Thursday, including five government soldiers, and five more were killed on Friday, medics and security sources have reported.
A rights centre run by the opposition put the death toll at 21 people.
‘Intentional act'
State news agency Saba quoted security sources as saying that armed groups were behind Friday's attacks on government facilities, including the criminal investigations building, the regional branch of the Immigration and Passports Department and a military camp.
Prime Minister-designate Mohammad Basindwa, an opposition leader, has warned that his side would rethink its commitments under the transition accord if the fighting in Taiz did not cease.
In a statement, Basindwa said the bombardment was "an intentional act to wreck the agreement" that opposition parties signed along with Saleh, who had backed out of signing the deal brokered by Yemen's Gulf neighbours three times.
Saba said British Foreign Secretary William Hague told Hadi on Friday the UK was monitoring the situation in Yemen.
