A truce reached by Yemen's government and dissidents, who have been locked in bloody battles for weeks, collapsed as soon as it was announced on Tuesday with fresh fighting rocking the capital. Fifteen people were killed in Sanaa and Taez, most of them in Yemen's second largest city, medical and tribal sources said.
Medics said at least seven people were killed in Taez, including a seven-year-old child, a woman and a policeman, during what residents said was random shelling by government forces of neighbourhoods. The interior ministry said four policemen also died. In Sanaa, the truce failed to take hold. Tribal sources said at least one man was killed and nine people were wounded when shelling rocked the northern Al-Hasaba neighbourhood.
The government and dissident general Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar had reached a cease-fire agreement, according to an official statement. Tribal forces in Al-Hasaba led by powerful chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, who backs the general and has thrown his support behind pro-democracy protests across Yemen, also agreed to the cease-fire, sources in his office told AFP. This is the third cease-fire breached since May between the government and tribal chief Sadiq, whose well-armed tribesman have been engaged in fierce battles with Saleh's troops in the capital's Hasaba district.