SANA, Yemen — Violence convulsed the streets of Yemen’s capital for a second straight day on Monday as government security forces battled soldiers who have joined anti-government protesters in the worst violence since March.
Medical officials in the capital said at least 20 people had been killed on Monday, news agencies reported, pushing the death toll from two days of fighting to more than 40.
Explosions and heavy gunfire could be heard throughout the morning from what seemed to be a new frontline in Sana, the capital, at an intersection just south of an area where protesters have been holding sit-ins for months.
The First Armored Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar, had taken over the area Sunday evening after clashing with security forces and protesters set up tents in the major intersection.
The area is also close to a residence of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s family, in the direction of the presidential palace.
After sporadic gunfire overnight, fighting intensified on Monday as rocket-propelled grenades fell near the protesters and forces loyal to General Ahmar fired artillery at positions held by government forces nearby.
Despite the renewed battles near the heart of the main antigovernment demonstration, protesters remained on Monday.
“We are staying here until we die,” said Wuheib al-Youseffy, 32, sitting on a curb with a group of men amid gunfire and booming artillery explosions. “Why should we be scared? We are used to this.”
The bloodied bodies of protesters could be seen sprawled on the floor in videos posted on Monday by activists in Sana’s central square. ,Many appeared to be dead, including a young boy who activists said was killed by sniper fire.
South of the capital, fighting flared in the city of Taiz, according to news reports, with at least one protester killed and more than a dozen wounded as demonstrators battled government forces.
Yemen’s divided military has been at a standoff on the streets of Sana for months, but after an attack Sunday on protesters, the First Armored Division fought back.
A United Nations envoy, Jamal Benomar, was set to arrive in Sana on Monday to oversee negotiations between the vice president and leaders of opposition political parties about the possible transfer of presidential powers. But it was unclear whether such an agreement, even if it were struck, would stop the latest fighting. The clashes began in Sana on Sunday when security forces firing from rooftops and from the back of pickup trucks turned heavy-caliber machine guns and other weapons on demonstrators , setting off battles between army defectors and forces loyal to the government.
Sunday’s violence left at least 24 demonstrators dead and more than 200 wounded in the Yemeni capital and threatened to scuttle any hopes for an accord between President Saleh and his opponents, who have been locked in a standoff for months over demands that he step down and transfer power. The fighting also raised the prospect of open and more intense sparring among factions of Yemen’s divided military, which many here fear could lead to civil war.
Already the political paralysis has sapped the weak central government in a country whose untamed reaches have become a base for Islamist militants linked to Al Qaeda. Conflict has raged in outlying provinces for months. The vacuum of authority has concerned American officials, who have struck at the Qaeda cells with drone aircraft run by the Central Intelligence Agency.
President Saleh himself remains out of the country, in Saudi Arabia, where he has been recuperating from wounds suffered in a bomb attack on the presidential palace in June.
The violence on Sunday began as the antigovernment demonstrators tried to march for the first time in months beyond the part of Sana where they have camped in a sit-in under the protection of General Ahmar As they did, men in civilian clothes opened fire from rooftops, the protesters said, and government security forces shot at them from a Ministry of Electricity building and, using machine guns, from the backs of pickup trucks. The gunfire lasted about an hour.
A separate group of protesters marching on what is known as the Ring Road, which runs around the capital, were met with gunfire and tear gas as soon as they left the area controlled by the First Armored Division, an attack that continued into the evening.
“I swear to God what happened today is a horrible massacre, and we are not able to even describe it, that the regime would use this violence against peaceful protesters,” said Bassem al-Sharjabi, a lawyer who is one of the protest leaders. “This is a crime against humanity. We demand from the international community to intervene to stop these crimes.”
Protesters said that the army division that opened fire on them with heavy weapons was under the command of Gen. Yahya Saleh, nephew of the president and chief of central security forces.
Yemen’s government issued several online statements on Sunday accusing the protesters of staging an illegal march and saying that members of the Islamist political party started the attacks.
General Saleh denied that his soldiers used ammunition of any sort on the demonstrators. Rather, he said, the fight was started between neighborhood residents and the protesters themselves.
“What happened today, we used tear gas only and water cannon only,” General Saleh said in a telephone interview. “And the shooting is between local citizens of the area, the first armored brigade who occupy Sana University and some of the people who were inside the demonstration. They were all shooting at each other.”
The attack on the protesters reflected the recent spike in tensions between President Saleh’s security forces and the tribesmen loyal to his main rivals, the Ahmar family, who are not related to General Ahmar.
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