Yemen security forces and armed men in civilian clothes clashed with anti-government demonstrators in the city of Taiz, firing on crowds calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, witnesses said. It was the third straight day of violence in Taiz, where more than 10 protesters were killed by gunfire on Monday.
Boshra al-Maqtari, one of the protest leaders, said that at least 20 people were wounded by gunfire on Tuesday but that there had been no deaths.
Gunfire also erupted in Sanaa, the capital, near the headquarters of Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar, a military leader who broke with Saleh last month to support the anti-government demonstrators.
Witnesses described a battle between Ahmar's soldiers and government supporters. The official Saba news agency said that the gunfire came only from Ahmar's soldiers and that they fired on a peaceful march of pro-government tribesmen, killing three.
SANCTIONS DROPPED AGAINST DEFECTOR
The Obama administration has dropped financial sanctions against the top Libyan official who fled to Britain last week, saying it hoped the move would encourage other senior aides to abandon Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
The decision to unfreeze bank accounts and permit business dealings with the official, Moussa Koussa, underscored the predicament his defection poses for U.S. and British authorities, who said on Tuesday that Scottish police and prosecutors planned to interview him about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and other issues "in the next few days."
Koussa's close knowledge of the ruling circle, which he is believed to be sharing inside a British safe house, could be invaluable in trying to strip Gadhafi of support.
But as the longtime Libyan intelligence chief and foreign minister, Koussa is widely believed to be implicated in acts of terrorism and murder over the last 30 years, including the assassination of dissidents, the training of international terrorists and the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. "He was both the left arm and the right arm of the regime, its bloodhound," said Dirk Vandewalle, a Dartmouth professor who has studied Libya for many years. Vandewalle recalled a dinner with friends in Libya a few years ago when one man mentioned Koussa's name, a dangerous faux pas. "The conversation just stopped," he said. "People switched to a different topic. Koussa was considered beyond the pale." NEW YORK TIMES
