Deadly street battles in Yemen claim 40 lives

More than 40 Yemenis were killed in pitched street battles in the capital on Thursday as fighting aimed at ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh's three-decade-long rule threatened to ignite civil war.

Residents were hurriedly strapping furniture, stoves, baby cots and other possessions to the roofs of cars and trucks and streaming out of Sana'a by the thousands, hoping to escape the violence that has killed more than 80 people since Monday.

The fighting, pitting the security forces of Saleh against members of the country's most powerful Hashid tribe led by Sadiq Al Ahmar, was the bloodiest Yemen has seen since protests began in January.

Arrests ordered

The defence ministry said 28 people were killed in an explosion in an arms storage area of Sana'a at dawn yesterday.

Fighters in civilian clothes roamed some districts and machinegun fire rang out sporadically.

Black smoke from mortar fire mixed with a haze of pollution and dust that hangs over Sana'a like a shroud.

On Wednesday Washington ordered all non-essential diplomats and embassy family members to leave Yemen. Yemen's state prosecutor ordered the arrest of ‘rebellious' leaders of the tribal group led by the Al Ahmar family and a government official said the headquarters of an opposition television station had been ‘destroyed' while a government official had said the airport was briefly closed due to the fighting but had reopened.

Saleh must go, G8 says

Leaders of the Group of Eight called on Yemen's president to quit on Thursday.

Summit host France said Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh must end his 33-year rule: "We deplore the fighting that occurred overnight which was a direct result of the current political impasse, for which President Saleh has direct responsibility due to his refusal to sign the GCC transition agreement," a foreign ministry spokesman said, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council.

"We continue to support the departure of President Saleh who has consistently agreed that he would be stepping down from power and then consistently reneged on those agreements" US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.