Yemeni Air Force 'Bombs City Of Zinjibar'

Yemeni Air Force warplanes have bombed al Qaeda and Islamist militant positions in the city of Zinjibar, residents say.

Resident Ali Dahmas said he saw fighter jets firing at the southern outskirts of the town and heard loud explosions that sent up columns of smoke.

Military units reportedly battled the militants in Zinjibar overnight onSunday in an attempt to clear the fighters from the town, where they have blockaded themselves behind barricades and rocks.

Shelling reportedly killed at least four of the fighters, bringing the death toll there since Saturday to 34, a hospital source said.

The air raid follows reports Yemeni forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead at least 20 people and wounded hundreds more when they opened fire on protesters in the second-largest city of Taiz.

A Reuters photographer at the scene on Sunday said police fired live ammunition, tear gas and used water cannons to disperse demonstrators protesting outside a municipal building.

"At least 20 protesters have been killed," a protest organiser told AFP.

The demonstrators in the southern city had been demanding the release of a fellow protester who was arrested on May 28.

The clashes took place near Freedom Square where thousands of anti-government protesters have been camping since January to demand Mr Saleh 's overthrow.

Police set two tents on fire in the square and protesters hurled petrol bombs and rocks at police.

Meanwhile, in the capital Sanaa, seven explosions were heard on Sunday night in the district of Hasaba, the scene of week-long fighting between Mr Saleh's forces and a rival tribe in which 115 people were killed, residents said.

There were no immediate details on the explosions, which appeared to have partially breached a truce between government forces and the powerful Hashed tribe led by Sadeq al-Ahmar in the bloodiest fighting this year.

Mr Ahmar condemned what he described as "Saleh's new massacre" against civilians in Taiz, however earlier on Sunday his men handed back control of a government building to mediators as part of a ceasefire deal.

Meanwhile, a breakaway military group called for other army units to join them in the fight to bring down Mr Saleh, piling pressure on him to end his three-decade rule over the destitute country .

Despite global and regional powers demanding he step down, he has refused to sign a deal, mediated by Gulf states, to start a transition of power aimed at averting civil war that could shake the region that supplies the world with oil.

"We call on you not to follow orders to confront other army units or the people," the breakaway units said in a statement read by General Abdullah Ali Aleiwa, a former defence minister.

Opposition leaders separately accused Mr Saleh of allowing the city of Zinjibar, on the Gulf of Aden, to fall to al Qaeda and Islamists militants in order to raise alarm in the region that would in turn translate to support for the president.

Residents in Zinjibar, about 170 miles southeast of the capital, said armed men likely from al Qaeda had control of the city in the flashpoint province of Abyan.

"About 300 Islamic militants and al Qaeda men came into Zinjibar and took over everything on Friday," a resident said.

Nearly 300 Yemenis have been killed over the past few months as the president has tried to stop pro-reform protests by force.

Generals and government officials began to abandon Mr Saleh after deadly crackdowns on protesters started in force in March.