Sana’a: At least five people were killed after deadly clash erupted between the soldiers loyal to the son of Yemen’s ousted president and guards of Defence Ministry in Sanaa, military officials said on Tuesday.
The clash was part of an increasingly violent challenge to new presidential orders to restructure the military. Soldiers from the Republican Guards, led by ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s son, were protesting a presidential decree that put some of the force’s units under presidential or regional oversight.
It was the second time in less than a week that the ministry has been besieged by his forces.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the military officials said that the attacking soldiers used automatic rifles and grenades. Troops responded, and the clashes killed one attacker, two ministry guards and two civilians.
Tanks and armored vehicles moved in on the ministry and closed off streets leading to it and the nearby central bank.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, speaking to reporters in Washington, urged an immediate end to violence and expressed support for the reforms introduced by the new president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
“I’m not going to speak to the motivations of some of these guys who have been violent,” Nuland said, “obviously it appears to be some of the dead-enders of the (former) regime trying to have their due and resist some of this democratic change that President Hadi is putting in place.”
She said those resisting the changes are “on the wrong side of history.”
Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi succeeded Yemini president Ali Abdullah Saleh after an uprising aginst him. The new president is facing different challenges including al-Qaeda threat in South and spilit in the soldiers of the country.
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