41 Killed as Chaos Again Erupts in Yemen

Firefights again reigned in the streets of Sanaa today, killing at least 41, and a fractured Republican Guard shelled the headquarters of an army brigade commander who was rumored to be defecting to the opposition. Opposition leaders deny that Brigadier-General Mohammed Khalil has defected, but tell the AP that he had angered President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Saleh's grip on the capital is slipping, notes the LA Times, and is largely confined to the south of Sanaa, where the presidential palace is located. But the battles were largely concentrated in the north, where Saleh's forces battled troops loyal to the leader of Saleh's tribe. "This morning was the most intense fighting we've seen yet," says one local resident holding an AK-47. "If I leave I will have no home to come back to. They will destroy everything." (More Yemen protests stories.)