Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 6, 1994 TAG: 9405060107
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN'A, YEMEN LENGTH: Medium
Fighting blazed near the presidential palace and in other parts of Yemen, while warplanes hit targets in the regional strongholds, San'a in the north and Aden in the south. The southern military command claimed it shot down two northern jets that attacked Aden.
There was no way to estimate casualties.
Officials on both sides said it was the worst fighting in this impoverished nation since conservative North Yemen and socialist South Yemen united on May22, 1990.
The nation of 14 million people, the peninsula's first democratic republic since parliamentary elections a year ago, promised to be an island of pluralism in a region of monarchs and other authoritarian rulers.
But differences over power-sharing prevented integration of the armed forces. With army units from each region based in the other in a failed attempt to cement the union, a power struggle between President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a northerner, and Vice President Ali Salem al-Beidh, a southerner, degenerated into escalating military clashes.
In a statement read Thursday over the government-run San'a Radio, Saleh ordered a 30-day state of emergency across the country. Later, the radio broadcast an edict banning the carrying of arms or shooting in the streets of the capital. There was no sign that the ban had any effect.
The southern military command said that late Wednesday northern warplanes attacked the airport in Aden and other districts of the city, which was capital of former South Yemen. European diplomats in San'a also reported air attacks on Aden.
Residents in San'a, including European diplomats, said southern air force jets struck the international airport and the presidential palace at daybreak Thursday.
Authorities closed the airport after the raid, sending stranded passengers back to downtown hotels.
Bright streaks of anti-aircraft fire laced the sky over thousands of mud-brick villas in San'a.
Smoke rose from the vicinity of the presidential palace, in the rim of the San`a basin. One diplomat said southern troops shelled the compound with artillery. It was not clear if Saleh was inside.
Artillery explosions also could be heard to the south of San`a, and small-arms fire echoed in the city's neighborhoods. Fighting also was reported on the main road leading to the Red Sea port of Hodeida and in the area around the presidential palace on the city's southern outskirts.
Fighting tapered off in the afternoon. As muezzins chanted the call to prayer from minarets, some Yemenis gathered at taxi stands in hopes of fleeing the capital. Many others stockpiled goods.
At nightfall, anti-aircraft fire resumed, sending pedestrians scurrying for cover. Several long power outages darkened homes and forced hotels to rely on emergency generators.
The southern command said fighting also was raging in three new regions, east and north of Aden and along the former border between North Yemen and South Yemen.
In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry announced it would evacuate all its citizens from Aden, estimated to number about 60. France also offered to evacuate any European Union citizens wishing to leave Aden.
Military officials in Paris said French forces in Djibouti, a small African nation on the southern coast of the Red Sea, were on alert to help with the evacuation.
The U.S. and British embassies advised their citizens to stay indoors and be prepared for possible evacuations. London said about 200 Britons live in Yemen. State Department officials estimated about 5,000 Americans are in Yemen, most of them holding dual American-Yemeni citizenship.
Saudi Arabia and the Arab League, which have been trying to mediate the dispute, again called for an end to the fighting.
by CNB