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Yemeni bombing raid kills 3 tribesmen

29 June 2011 00:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least three people have been killed as Yemeni military forces bombed several villages north of the capital Sana’a, where anti-government tribes are based, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Tribal leader Sheik Ali Youssef of the Naham tribe said at least three people were killed in the assault that began a day earlier in the Naham mountain area, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Sana’a, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

Yemen’s Republican Guard forces have pounded the villages scattered in the area, using warplanes and artillery. As many as 48 houses were destroyed and hundreds of people were forced to flee their homes, Youssef said.

The Naham mountain area has been the scene of clashes between anti-government tribes and military forces commanded by a son of the Yemeni dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh since the beginning of the country’s popular uprising in January.

The tribesmen have often prevented military forces in the area from deploying to the capital.

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have turned out for regular demonstrations in the country’s major cities since the beginning of protests, calling for an end to corruption and unemployment and demanding the ouster of Saleh, who has been in power since 1978.

Saleh is still allegedly under medical treatment in Saudi Arabia for the injuries he reportedly received in an attack on the presidential palace on June 3.

Local media say a mission sent by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which landed in Sana’a on Tuesday, has started a 10-day visit to examine the human rights situation in Yemen after the UN Security Council last week expressed "grave concern" over the violence in Yemen.