Yemen

Yemen's cabinet approved a law Sunday granting President Ali Abdullah Saleh and anyone who has worked under him immunity from prosecution for crimes committed during his 33-year rule. The decision surprised many in Yemen, who believed a power-transfer deal he signed in November granted Saleh and his family immunity from prosecution for the killings of protesters, but would not extend to cover his three-decade rule and anyone who worked in government. The cabinet approved the law despite daily protests demanding the longtime leader be put on trial for the killing of hundreds of people in raids on protest camps.

SANAA, Yemen - The grim prospect of civil war in Yemen has drawn closer as mutinous soldiers become more deeply involved in a rapidly spreading battle against regime forces for control of the capital. A negotiated cease-fire Tuesday halted three days of fighting that killed dozens of people, but it will not hold without a quick resolution of the key dispute: who will lead the nation. A peaceful way out of Yemen's seven-month crisis may not come easily, if at all, making it more likely to be settled in large-scale and ruinous street battles pitting renegade army soldiers and their allied tribal fighters against U.S.-trained forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh and led by his son and onetime heir apparent, Ahmed.

CAIRO - Even in the best of times, Yemen looks like a nation about to unravel. Now that the U.S.-allied leader has left Yemen for medical treatment and may not return, citizens of the poorest Arab country are contemplating a future perhaps even worse than the 33 years under authoritarian rule. The question of who would ultimately replace President Ali Abdullah Saleh could unleash new and unpredictable power struggles among the country's powerful tribes, the youth movement that has led the anti-Saleh protests, and remnants of the leader's regime, including his son. In the meantime, the numerous conflicts and economic and social problems that were already leading Yemen to ever-greater disorder and hardship before this year's unrest broke out look certain to remain unaddressed as the political crisis deepens.

SAN'A, Yemen - Military forces and police snipers opened fire Monday on marchers calling for the ouster of Yemen's embattled president, killing at least 15 people and sending a strong message of defiance to U.S. and European envoys seeking to broker a peace deal after months of bloodshed. The melee in the southern city of Taiz - part of an intensifying crackdown on the opposition - underscored the resolve of President Ali Abdullah Saleh to cling to power even as protest crowds resist withering attacks and crucial allies switch sides and call for an end to his 32-year rule.

SAN'A, Yemen - President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ruling party said Saturday he had decided to stay in Yemen, reversing plans to leave, in an apparent attempt to salvage his control over the regime, which has appeared to unravel in the face of internal revolts and relentless street protests. In a sign of the fraying, Saleh's son and a nephew launched a crackdown on suspected dissidents within the ranks of the elite security services they command, officials within the services said.

SANA'A, Yemen - A U.S.-backed deal for Yemen's authoritarian president to step down fell far short of the demands of protesters who fought regime supporters on the streets of Sana'a Thursday in clashes that left five dead. The agreement ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule provides for only the shallowest of changes at the top of the regime, something the U.S. administration likely favored to preserve a fragile alliance against one of the world's most active al-Qaeda branches based in Yemen.

SAN'A, Yemen - President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded when rebellious tribesmen struck his palace with rockets Friday, targeting him for the first time in a dramatic escalation of fighting that has turned parts of the capital into a battleground and pushed Yemen toward civil war. One of the rockets smashed into a mosque on the palace grounds where Saleh was praying along with his top leadership. It was a stunning hit on the regime's most senior figures: Among the nine wounded were the prime minister, Saleh's powerful top security adviser, and the two heads of parliament, as well as the cleric leading prayers.

SAN'A, Yemen - A new law granting sweeping immunity to Yemen's president and anyone who served in his authoritarian regime over the last 33 years sparked fresh violence Monday and brought condemnation from human-rights groups. The law passed late Sunday by the cabinet, just weeks before President Ali Abdullah Saleh is supposed to step down, is part of a U.S.-backed effort to end the country's political quagmire. But the broad immunity from prosecution has only set off new debates about whether it gives suspected war criminals and corrupt officials a free pass or is a sacrifice necessary for Yemen to move on. The immunity would also cover those behind deadly crackdowns that have killed more than 200 protesters in Yemen's 11-month uprising - part of the Arab Spring revolts that have swept through countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

SAN'A, Yemen - A suicide attacker driving a pickup truck packed with explosives blew himself up outside an army camp in Yemen's coastal city of Aden on Sunday, killing at least eight soldiers and wounding dozens, security officials said. The officials said the blast occurred near the gate of the camp as a column of vehicles loaded with troops and supplies was preparing to leave for nearby Abyan province to take part in fighting against al-Qaeda-linked militants. Among the dead were two senior officers, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

SAN'A, Yemen - The U.S.-backed president of Yemen suffered a devastating political blow Sunday when his own powerful tribe demanded his resignation, joining religious leaders, young people, and the country's traditional opposition in calls for an end to his three decades in power. Tens of thousands of angry residents flooded cities and towns around the impoverished and volatile nation, screaming in grief and anger as they mourned dozens of protesters killed Friday when President Ali Abdullah Saleh's security forces opened fire from rooftops on a demonstration in the capital.

SANAA, Yemen - Fresh clashes between al-Qaeda fighters and government forces in Yemen left 17 dead on Sunday, military officials said, as the army pushed on with an offensive to regain a key town in the county's south that fell to the militants more than a year ago. Officials said eight al-Qaeda fighters, four soldiers and five civilian volunteers fighting alongside the military were killed since the early hours of Sunday. The army started a two-pronged attack on the town of Jaar on Friday.

SAN'A, Yemen - Government troops backed by warplanes and heavy artillery pounded al-Qaeda positions in southern Yemen on Sunday, killing at least 30 militants, officials said. The army launched its assault on the al-Hurur region of Abyan province at dawn Sunday, pushing out al-Qaeda-linked fighters who have controlled the area since taking it over last year. Abdullah Ahmed, who lives in the area, said the militants fled by foot after government soldiers destroyed nearly a dozen tanks and vehicles mounted with rocket launchers seized by the militants last year and kept in al-Hurur.

SANA'A, Yemen - Two air strikes Thursday in south Yemen killed seven al-Qaeda militants, including two top operatives, officials said. Yemeni soldiers, meanwhile, shelled a gathering of al-Qaeda fighters elsewhere in the south, killing 10 militants. The attacks could be another setback for al-Qaeda, coming just days after details emerged about a Saudi mole within the network who reportedly provided information allowing the CIA to target a key leader of Yemen's terror branch. Thursday's air strikes hit in the town of Jaar and northeast of Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, Yemeni security officials said.

SAN'A, Yemen - After years of stalling and halfhearted efforts under its now-ousted president, Yemen is finally showing resolve in the fight against al-Qaeda's branch in the country, which has been behind a string of attempted attacks on the United States, including a new foiled plot to bomb an airliner. Still, the difficulties remain formidable. The army is largely demoralized and undisciplined as it fights al-Qaeda extremists who seized several towns in the south during the chaos of last year's uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

A senior al-Qaeda militant in Yemen linked to the deadly bombing of a U.S. warship there in 2000 was reported killed in an air strike Sunday. A6.

SANA'A, Yemen - The United States and Yemen pledged Tuesday to step up high-level cooperation in the fight against al-Qaeda as government forces punched their way into the heart of a city long held by militants in the Arab nation's lawless south. The terror network has taken advantage of the country's political turmoil of the last year to capture several southern areas, and the Americans are eager to coordinate efforts with the Yemenis to push them back. An al-Qaeda settled and safe in the remote interior of southern Yemen would allow its militants to plan and execute more attacks on Western interests, taking advantage of proximity to strategic shipping lanes in the Red and Arabian Seas through which much of the West's energy needs to pass.

SANAA, Yemen - An al-Qaeda attack on a Yemeni army post in the south set off clashes that left 64 people dead Monday and prompted local civilians to take up arms alongside the military to beat back the militants, said army officials and residents. The dawn attack was the latest in a series of bloody battles in recent months that mark an escalation in al-Qaeda's efforts to expand its control around a swath of land it seized last year. The group took advantage of the country's political turmoil to overrun cities and towns in southern Yemen.

SAN'A, Yemen - Loyalists of former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh seized the country's main airport Saturday as tanks and armored vehicles occupied the tarmac and forced authorities to cancel flights, a day after a military shake-up in which key commanders were fired. Driving pickup trucks mounted with antiaircraft guns, armed tribesmen along with troops in uniform blasted buildings of San'a International Airport and opened fire on one of the airport surveillance towers before surrounding the entire complex, blocking roads and turning away passenger vehicles.

SANAA, Yemen - An air strike killed four al-Qaeda militants on Friday in a southern district of Yemen that has been under the group's control for around a year, officials said. They said a gas pipeline in the same region was attacked later in the day in an operation likely carried out by militants. The military officials from Shabwa province said that an unmanned U.S. drone launched the strike on a vehicle carrying seven militants in the district of Azan. The officials said four were killed, while three were critically wounded and under treatment in a nearby al-Qaeda-run clinic in Shabwa.

SANA'A, Yemen - Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch said Thursday that it killed an American teacher because he was trying to spread Christianity in the mainly Muslim Arab nation. Joel Shrum, 29, of Mount Joy, Pa., was gunned down Sunday in the central city of Taiz, where he had been living with his wife and two sons. He was studying Arabic and teaching English at a language institute. The claim of responsibility, which was posted on an extremist website, comes as the terror network increasingly has sought to exploit the political turmoil in the Arab world's most impoverished nation.