- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:26 05:44 12:20 15:47 18:50 20:08
Students gesture and chant slogans as they protest on the Sanaa University campus to show their support for a boycott of university studies as part of protests demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa,Yemen. (AP)
Heavy shelling targeted the area surrounding the home of a powerful Yemeni dissident tribal chief in Sanaa Sunday as his office and authorities exchanged blame over the violence.
Troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh "opened fire using machine guns and are firing mortar rounds on the area surrounding Sheikh Sadiq Al Ahmar's home" in Al Hasaba district, said a source from the tribal chief's home.
The shelling, which began in the afternoon, also targetted Al Mazda road in the district's centre prompting people there to flee the area, witnesses said.
"The shelling is targeting us from several directions but we have not responded as Sheikh Sadiq has given us orders not to respond," the source who spoke from Ahmar's home told AFP.
But Yemen's Minister of Interior Motahar Rashad al-Masri said that "Ahmar's gunmen, deployed on rooftops, opened fire on the ministry of interior and policemen who were having their lunch."
The troops "responded only to silence the source of fire," he added. "We are committed to self-restraint based on the orders of vice president" Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.
In a statement Saturday, Ahmar's office accused troops loyal to Saleh, who has been recovering in Riyadh from bomb blast wounds since June, of firing six mortar rounds late on Friday at the tribal chief's home.
No casualties were reported.
Fierce clashes between Ahmar's tribesmen and loyal troops in Al Hasaba in May killed more than 140 people before the two sides agreed a truce.
The sheikh heads the powerful Hashid tribe which ended its support to Saleh -- also a member of Hashid -- in March and joined the protests which erupted in January demanding the ouster of the president.
Influential tribal leaders formed in August a coalition headed by Ahmar to bolster the uprising against Saleh who has been in a Saudi hospital since June after being wounded in a bomb attack on his Sanaa compound.
Tribes wield much influence in impoverished Yemen, where the Hashid is a heavily armed tribal confederation capable of rallying and financing thousands of fighters. The Bakil is the other main tribal confederation.
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