Renewed clashes in Yemen capital, blasts in south

Sounds of explosions and gunfire shook a northern district of the Yemeni capital Sanaa early on Thursday, in what appeared to be renewed clashes between tribesmen opposed to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and troops loyal to him, residents said.

Artillery and automatic weapons fire was focused near the home of a prominent anti-Saleh tribal leader in the Hasaba district, the site of weeks of bloody fighting that began in May, they said.

Two people were killed and two others wounded in the clashes, Al Arabiya television reported. There were no immediate reports of damages.

Saleh, recovering in Saudi Arabia from a June assassination attempt, is holding onto power despite international pressure to quit and months of protests against his 33-year rule in the poor Arabian Peninsula country.

The United States and neighbouring Saudi Arabia fear unrest in Yemen will embolden al Qaeda's Yemen-based regional wing to launch strikes on the region and beyond.

In the southern city of Aden, two explosions hit the intelligence headquarters and a police base early on Thursday, but did not cause much damage, a local security official said.

Witnesses said one young boy was shot dead when security forces responded with heavy gunfire. The official said no security personnel were hurt by the explosions.

He said the blasts were likely caused by explosive devices that did not penetrate the perimeter walls of the two buildings, which stand around 400 metres (yards) apart.

The blasts took place days after Yemen's army announced it had recaptured Zinjibar, the capital of the neighbouring province of Abyan, where militants linked to al Qaeda have mounted a rising challenge to government control.

Militants began capturing several areas in Abyan in May, but the army launched an offensive two months ago to regain territory. Tens of thousands have fled the violence.

There have been several attacks on security forces around Aden since the army began to fight the militants. Officials blamed most of the attacks on suspected al Qaeda operatives.

On Wednesday, seven militants and one soldier were killed in a suburb of Zinjibar, a military official said. Four more militants were killed in another part of the coastal city.

"The militants crept into the area to try to carry out a suicide attack, but the snipers from the army prevented them and killed seven extremists," said the military official.

Zinjibar was seized in May by militants calling themselves Ansar Al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic law).

Residents said the army launched Katyusha rockets against pockets of insurgents in the city.

The army later opened artillery fire on militants trying to regroup in a suburb of the city, a security official said, adding that several militants were thought to have been killed.

Separately, Ahmed Al-Magidi, governor of the nearby province of Lahej, told Reuters a small number of militants had fled there from Abyan, but he dismissed their significance, saying they could be "counted on the fingers of one hand".

Lahej has absorbed some 15,000 refugees from Abyan, he said, adding that there was continued unrest and attacks on checkpoints and buildings, but that attackers were not thought to belong to Al Qaeda.

Opponents of Saleh have accused him of exaggerating the al Qaeda threat or even manipulating militants as a ploy to scare Washington and Riyadh into backing him.