SANAA, June 2, (Agencies): Forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh battled with tribal fighters in Yemen’s capital on Thursday in overnight clashes that killed dozens as a US envoy flew around the region to try and stop a civil war.
Ferocious fighting in the streets of Sanaa which grew out of protests against Saleh’s rule since January has killed at least 135 people in the past 10 days calling into question the future of the troubled state.
Saleh has reneged on deals by regional leaders to secure a peaceful end to his nearly 33 years in power. US President Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser arrived on Wednesday in the region to reinforce the drive to oust him.
Global powers are worried that Yemen, home to a wing of militant group al-Qaeda known as AQAP and bordering the world’s biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia, could become a failed state raising risks for world oil supplies.
Even before the wave of pro-democracy protests against his rule, Saleh was struggling to quell a separatist rebellion in the south and a Shiite insurgency in the north.
US envoy John Brennan left Saudi Arabia on Thursday for more talks on Yemen in the United Arab Emirates, a US official in Saudi Arabia said. He will seek the help of the two countries’ leaders to pressure Saleh to accept the exit deal.
The battles in Yemen are being fought on several fronts, with street fighting between tribal groups and Saleh’s forces in Sanaa, popular protests across the country and a battle against al-Qaeda and Islamists militants who have seized a coastal city.
Passengers said flights were suspended for several hours at Sanaa airport, which was briefly shut last week, due to the fighting. The airport reopened in the afternoon.
In Taiz, about 200 kms (120 miles) south of Sanaa, Yemeni soldiers fired warning shots at demonstrators protesting against a government that has brought the nation to the brink of ruin. Medical sources in Taiz said there were no injuries.
Deadly fighting raged between armed tribesmen and security forces on the streets of Sanaa Thursday, sending thousands of residents fleeing and closing the Yemeni capital’s airport, witnesses said.
Medics said bodies were lying in the streets of Al-Hasaba neighbourhood, bastion of powerful tribal leader Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, where the fighting erupted on Tuesday after a truce broke down.
Tribal leaders meanwhile said thousands of armed tribesmen were on their way to Sanaa to boost Ahmar’s forces, but had been stopped at a military post 15 kms (nine miles) north of the capital, where clashes broke out.
Yemen’s government raised possibilities Thursday that embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh is ready to ink a Gulf-brokered power transfer plan, as pressure mounted on him to quit amid raging violence.
“Yemen is ready to finish the signing of the Gulf initiative which was signed by the General People’s Congress,” a government spokesman told state news agency Saba.
Saleh has baulked the signing of a Gulf-sponsored deal under which he will leave office within 30 days in return for a promise of immunity from prosecution.
“The date for the signing will be set soon based on consultations and coordination between the Yemen and the Gulf Cooperation Council states,” Saba said, quoting the unnamed government official.
The spokesman blamed violence ravaging the streets of the capital Sanaa as unrelated to the country’s political crisis but said it came after “outlawed armed elements resorted to violence and chaos.”
President Barack Obama has dispatched a top aide to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the deteriorating situation in Yemen, the White House said on Wednesday.
“We strongly condemn the recent clashes in Sanaa and the deplorable use of violence by the government against peaceful demonstrators in Taiz,” the White House said, announcing the visit of Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan.
US relations with Saudi Arabia have been strained by unrest sweeping the Arab world, which saw Washington ditch long-standing allies, including Egypt’s autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak, in order to side with pro-democracy demonstrators.

Bahrain
Bahrain, eager for Formula One organisers to reinstate a motor race postponed after popular protests erupted in February, acted to prevent any unrest on Thursday after lifting martial law earlier in the week.
Police patrolled the streets of Manama and villages around the capital to snuff out any pro-democracy protests a day before the world motor racing body meets to decide whether Bahrain can stage its prestigious Grand Prix race later in the year.
Bahrain’s Sunni royal family imposed military rule for three months and brought in Saudi and United Arab Emirates troops in mid-March to help quell protests mostly by majority Shiites.
The government says the end of emergency law this week is a sign that things have gone back to normal in the island state, on the frontline of the cold war between Shiite power Iran and Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab dynasties allied with the United States.
“Let’s bring Bahrain Formula One back. Together we can,” signposts say in Manama.
Rights activists say emergency law was ended two weeks early in order to win back the Bahrain Grand Prix.
US-based Human Rights Watch has said the sport’s governing body should weigh a heavy crackdown on opposition activists during 11 weeks of martial law when it makes its decision.
Britain on Wednesday praised Bahrain’s decision to lift emergency rule, but urged “concrete change and genuine political reform”.
“We welcome the King’s announcement of a National Dialogue and the lifting of the state of national safety,” Alistair Burt, a minister in Britain’s Foreign Office, said in a statement.
“It’s now critical that there is concrete change and genuine political reform, the only way to ensuring long term stability,” he added.
Around 30 people have died in protests which erupted in February.
Most of the deaths came after the royal family, drawn from the country’s Sunni minority, invited troops from neighbouring Saudi Arabia to help deal with the unrest.
Despite the announcement regarding the end of emergency rule, security forces were Wednesday accused of using violence to halt an attempt by pro-reform protesters to stage new demonstrations.
“We remain deeply concerned by reports of human rights abuses, including the recent arrests of protesters and medical staff and the nature of the charges brought against them,” Burt continued.
“We continue strongly to urge the government of Bahrain to meet all its human rights obligations and uphold political freedoms, equal access to justice and the rule of law,” he added.