Yemen (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Blaming Al Qa'eda, Killing the Protesters

2020 GMT: A series of claimed videos to close the evening:

A march following two funerals in the Souq al Jomaa district of Tripoli in Libya:

A candlelit march in Sanabis in Bahrain:

Anti-regime protesters in Idlib in northwest Syria:

2010 GMT: A round-up of the latest from Yemen, courtesy of the Yemen Post:

The newspaper reports that at least 57 people were slain in today's attack by security forces. Eleven demonstrators were burned to death as tents were set on fire.

A youth committee in Taiz say at least 700 young people are missing. The youth are hoping to regroup for a mass march to regroup after the demolition of Freedom Square.

A regime spokesperson has blamed protesters for starting the violence, saying that 11 soldiers were injured.

In the fighting in Abyan Province in and around Zinjibar in the south, more than 60 are reported killed.

There have been no clashes between regime forces and opposition tribes in the capital Sana'a today, but four explosions have been heard this evening.

1900 GMT: A round-up of news from Libya today....

A group of defecting Libyan army officers --- five generals, two colonels and a major --- have been giving a news conference in Rome, announcing their defection from the regime and saying that Libya's army was now at 20% capacity.

Abdel Rahman Shalgham, the former Foreign Minister who quit as Libya's representative to the United Nations in late February, claimed, "These officers are among 120 who left Qaddafi and Libya over the last few days. We hope more will join us and the Libyan people, and leave the side of this despot and criminal."

Some defecting officers with Shalgam:

Libya's State news agency JANA claims NATO airstrikes killed 11 people in Zlitan, west of the opposition-held city of Misurata.

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has arrived in Tripoli for talks with Muammar Qaddafi, but there is confusion over their purpose. Initial reports were of an "exit strategy" for Colonel Gaddafi, but regime officials have said this is misleading and the discussion will be of humanitarian concerns.

1855 GMT: Syrian security forces have killed at least three civilians today as they completed the occupation of Talbiseh in central Syria.

A total of 14 people have been killed since Sunday in the area around Homs, Syria's third-largest city, as troops and tanks surrounded towns and villages. Talbiseh is 10 kilometres (6 miles) north of Homs.

"Shelling began at five in the morning, concentrating on a hill in the middle of the town," said a resident who managed to leave. He said troops and security forces took over the main clinic, and wounded people were taken to a cultural center for treatment.

1610 GMT: An Al Jazeera English report appears to show Western special forces working with insurgents in Libya.

Six men are visible in the footage. Correspondent Tony Birtley said they were "possibly British", although he did not explain why.

There have been numerous reports in the British press that soldiers of the Special Air Service (SAS) are acting as spotters to help NATO warplanes target regime forces. In March, six special forces troops and two intelligence officers were detained by opposition fighters when they landed on an abortive mission to meet insurgent leaders in Benghazi.

1540 GMT: More footage of tents being burnt in the protest camp in Freedom Square in Taiz in Yemen:

1530 GMT: Blogger Hossam El-Hamalawy, television host Reem Maged, and journalist Nabil Sharaf El-Din have been summoned to appear before military prosecutors.

On Thursday, Maged broadcast on her show Hamalawy's criticism of the role of military police, holding the head of the service responsible for torturing activists.

El-Din has been summoned for denouncing, on a Friday programme on OnTV, the military's handling of the transition period.

1520 GMT: The lawyer of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said his client is worth no more than $1 million and has no assets overseas.

Farid El-Deeb added that Mubarak has denied charges of graft and killing protesters, for which he has been ordered to stand trial: "He was very sad and sorry because he did not imagine such accusations."

El-Deeb said Mubarak, "The president has serious heart problems. He does not watch TV or anything else. They ban him from doing so to avoid more psychological pain. He speaks very little and suppresses a lot of his feelings."

1515 GMT: Back from a holiday break to find footage of the anti-regime protest camp in Taiz just before it was attacked by security forces early this morning. Demonstrators chant "Allahu Akbar (God is Great" as gunfire rings out:

1040 GMT: Protest in Ibb in southwest Yemen in support of the anti-regime demonstrators in Taiz, who were attacked by security forces early this morning:

1035 GMT: Demonstration in Aleppo on Sunday night, expressing sympathy for Hamza al-Khateeb, the 13-year-old boy allegedly mutilated and killed by Syrian security forces.

0745 GMT: The Wall Street Journal reports on the situation on the southern coast of Yemen, where insurgents took over the town of Zinjibar on Sunday:

Zinjibar residents said fighters hail from local tribes which for years have lived outside of the central-government oversight. The group, which calls itself Ansar al-Sharia, or the Supporters of Islamic Law, isn't part of al Qaeda, residents say, but want to set up a fundamentalist Islamic emirate in the south, like the Taliban did in Afghanistan.

Gregory Johnsen, a specialist on Yemeni politics, adds, "[Ansar al-Sharia] is how AQAP [Al Qa'eda in the Arabian Peninsula] has taken to introducing itself in some places because of the baggage associated with the name AQ."

0735 GMT: An anti-regime demonstration in Homs in Syria on Sunday night:

0730 GMT: A medical official in Yemen says the death toll from an early-morning attack by security forces on protesters in Taiz is now at least 20.

Sadek al-Shugaa, the head of a field hospital at the protest camp, said Republican Guard forces backed by tanks moved in before dawn to clear the square.

Burning tents in the camp:

0725 GMT: We reported and posted videos yesterday on the disruption of protests in Morocco, including the capital Rabat and the largest city Casablanca, by security forces. Another clip this morning, with protesters regrouping in Sale after some were wounded in a police charge:

0640 GMT: A Yemeni security official has said that four regime soldiers have been killed and dozens injured en route to the insurgent-held town of Zinjibar on the southern coast.

0615 GMT: Ali Tarhouni, the Minister of Finance in Libya's opposition government, has said he does not expect oil production in the opposition-held east to restart in the near-future.

The Libyan insurgents sold their first tanker of crude oil to US refiner Tesoro in April, but production has been halted because of security concerns.

"As soon as I'm confident that there's a minimum level of security, we'll resume production again but I don't think that will happen in the next two to three weeks -- it will take some time," Tarhouni told reporters.

Pressed for details, he continued, "I really don't have a time frame. I'm hoping soon, but I can't tell when."

Crude oil reserves have now dwindled to less than one-half million barrels, Tarhouni said. Libya was producing around 1.6 million barrels per day of oil, exporting about 1.3 million bpd, before the beginning of the uprising in February.

0545 GMT: A busy Sunday in Yemen, with events shifting along three fronts....

The first front to dominate headlines was a takeover of the southern city of Zinjabar by 300 insurgents. The general label "Al Qa'eda" was slapped by most media upon the fighters, even though no one offered information about the opposiing tribes and insurgencies in the area. And the situation was made more curious by the apparent withdrawal of regime forces from the city: the conspiracy theory soon circulated that President Saleh had deliberately pulled out his troops so he could create a "terrorism" threat to justify holding on to his position.

The second front came in the evening. Talk of a cease-fire between Saleh and the tribes and military dissidents against him was gone, replaced by news of explosions north of the capital Saleh and bombing of areas in Arhab, south of Sanaa. Machine guns were reportedly fired in the Hasaba district of the capital, the base of the opposition tribal leader Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar

But perhaps the most significant front was the apparent by Saleh's security forces to put down protesters in the central city of Taiz. At least six were killed and more than 100 wounded by gunfire. Hundreds more suffered from the effects of tear gas. 

Claimed close-up footage of members of the security forces firing on protesters in Taiz in Yemen