Yemen unrest: Saleh forces 'shell Sanaa protest camp'

Government forces in Yemen have continued firing shells at a protester camp in the capital, witnesses say.

Explosions rocked Sanaa all night, and at least six people were killed in a third day of unrest, reports say.

Government forces launched a bloody assault on the protesters on Sunday in a crackdown that has now claimed the lives of more than 50 people.

Protesters have occupied parts of Sanaa for most of the year, calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit.

Mr Saleh, who has ruled the country for more than three decades, has been in Saudi Arabia since June, when he was seriously injured in a rocket attack on his presidential compound.

The president has refused to stand down and is promising to return to the country.

The latest violence is the worst the country has seen for several months.

Witnesses say government snipers have been shooting protesters from the rooftops in Sanaa.However, ministers have consistently denied that their soldiers have targeted civilians or peaceful demonstrators, telling the BBC the unrest was initiated by al-Qaeda-linked forces within the opposition.

Government forces have also been involved in full-scale combat with an army unit that defected to the protesters months ago.

Witnesses say military aircraft have been targeting positions held by the protest-supporting troops.

After two days of bloodshed in the capital, a third day of violence began before dawn with shelling and rocket attacks near the protesters' camp.

"We were walking back from prayers. All of a sudden a rocket hit close by from out of nowhere, and some people fell down," protester Manea al-Matari told Reuters news agency.

"And then a second one came and that's when we saw the two martyred."

Doctors later said at least six people had been killed on Tuesday, but it was not clear whether they were all killed in shelling, or some had died in gun battles.
'Humanitarian crisis'

The BBC's Middle East correspondent Jon Leyne says civilian protesters are increasingly caught in the middle of a conventional military battle between the Saleh loyalists and troops backing the protests.

On Monday, one report said troops loyal to the protesters had seized a base of the republican guards - an elite force run by the president's son Ahmed.Analysts say the final battle for control of the country could pit the republican guards against the army units loyal to the protesters and their tribal allies.

Mass protests and killings by security forces have also been reported in the cities of Taiz and Aden in recent days.

Envoys from the UN and the Gulf Cooperation Council arrived in Yemen on Monday in a bid to sort out a deal to end the bloodshed.

Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world. It faces multiple crises and some analysts already see it as a failed state.

It has an active al-Qaeda cell, as well as a separatist movement in the south and a Shia-dominated uprising in the north.

Aid agencies warn that the country is suffering a severe humanitarian crisis with about 7.5 million Yemenis - one third of the population - going hungry.