Yemen, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Suicide Bombing in Sana'a

Al Jazeera's report on Monday on the suicide bombing in Yemen

See also Bahrain Live Coverage: Appearing Before the UN Human Rights Council
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Amidst the Assassination Rumors, 60 Die
Turkey Live Coverage (21 May): Regional and Global Dimensions of "Terrorism"

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1735 GMT: Libya. Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said Tuesday that Tunis will soon extradite former Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, after detaining him for eight months.

Al-Mahmoudi was arrested in September for illegally crossing the frontier into Tunisia as he tried to flee to Algeria.

"Tunisia will never be a refuge for those who represent a threat to Libya's security," said Jebali on Tuesday, following a visit by his Libyan counterpart, Abdurrahim el-Keib.

Lawyers and human rights groups had opposed the extradition, saying Al-Mahmoudi might be harmed by Libya's new ruling authorities.

1730 GMT: Syria. The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria says 13 people have died today: three each in Hama, Deir Ez Zor, and Daraa Provinces, two in Homs Province, and one each in Aleppo and Idlib Provinces.

1725 GMT: Lebanon/Syria. Sayyad Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has appealed for calm after 12 Lebanese were reportedly kidnapped in Syria.

Nasrallah condemned the abductions but continued, "In the name of (political party) Amal and Hezbollah, I ask that no one blocks streets (by burning tires). That could have unexpected consequences....Blocking roads would lead to what? Who would that put pressure on? It would just complicate people's lives."

Nasrallah also warned people against revenge kidnappings: "It is not allowed to abduct any Syrian in Lebanon. This is haram and Syrians are our family."

The 12 kidnapped Lebanese Shia were seized on their way home from holy shrines in Iraq on Tuesday.

1555 GMT: Syria. The Guardian reports that Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for Kofi Annan, has confirmed that the UN negotiated a deal between a Free Syrian Army unit in Khan Shaykhoun and the local Syrian military commanders to trade two detainees for a damaged tank. Earlier, Guardian posted video and an explanation of the deal.

What's particularly interesting - this deal occurred yesterday, and Khan Shaykhoun appears to have been heavily attacked today.

1538 GMT: Syria. It appears that the regime assault on the towns surrounding Ma'arrat al Nouman is very widespread and intense. There are reports of shells, rockets, and tanks attacking multiple areas. Beyond what we've already posted, here are two videos we've found that are consistent with other reports.

This video was reportedly taken in Hich:

A shell lands in Khan Shaykhoun and activists rush an injured person (perhaps a child) to from the scene:

1522 GMT: Syria. The Guardian has found this interesting video of a Free Syrian Army commander giving a detailed explanation to the UN monitors of the shelling campaigns against Al Rastan:

One of the thick-set officers in the clip says "rockets are coming from the southern and northern side". Asked by the monitor to say who was firing the rockets he replied "The brigade of bridge engineers."

He said they were part of field brigade number one which includes battalion 15 and battalion 18, according to our colleague Mona Mahmood. It is equipped with mortars and tanks the officer told the monitors.

1504 GMT: Syria. We've received even more reports that the military is shelling the central districts of Homs today. This video reportedly shows a burning mosque in the Bayada district, as shells appear to explode in the background:

Another video claiming to show fresh damage in Bayada:

Assad seems to have grown bold, indeed - UN observers are only 20 kilometers to the north of this shelling today.

1458 GMT: Syria. Meanwhile, so far today Al Rastan, north of Homs, appears to have earned a respite from the violence as UN monitors arrived in the city today. Several videos show former detainees and those who have lost loved ones speaking to the observers, but this video was particularly interesting. It shows the monitors in Al Rastan, speaking with a resident and looking across an open field. On the other side of the field - tanks, dug in and covered with tarps, presumably to escape the gaze of the observers and any drone or satellite surveillance:

1450 GMT: Syria. Another video from Al Atareb, west of Aleppo - this claims to show that the local Free Syrian Army brigade has captured this tank. Fighters can be seen removing the heavy machine gun from the top, and looting the vehicle. We don't know whether they will keep the tank.

Earlier we posted video of a destroyed armored vehicle in Al Atareb (update 1403). This does not appear to be the same vehicle, suggesting that one tank was captured and the other destroyed.

1433 GMT: Syria. After a slow start, the Assad regime appears to have launched an offensive against Homs, several areas in Idlib, and parts of Daraa province. According to LCCS, central Homs is being shelled, and the regime has launched an intense tank offensive against Dael, a key opposition town near Daraa.

1424 GMT: Syria. We're looking for evidence that the Free Syrian Army has attacked Assad positions in several Idlib towns (Khan Shaykhoun is one rumor). On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence of a major Assad military assault against several Idlib towns, most notably Kafer Roumeh, Hass, Kafr Nabl, and the towns south-west of Ma'arrat al Nouman (Map). This video shows tanks deployed in the streets, as soldiers and tanks reportedly open fire nearby:

This video reportedly shows the city being shelled by tanks and artillery (and possibly aircraft, as the LCCS reports heavy bombardment from the sky, and there have been several videos showing aircraft in the area):

1403 GMT: Syria. There are rumors of a series of attacks by the Free Syrian Army against Assad targets in a few towns in Idlib province. We'll try to sort those claims. The video below, posted by the Shaam News Network, which we have found to be highly reliable, reportedly shows a heavily armored Assad vehicle destroyed by the Free Syrian Army in Al Atarbeb, in Aleppo province between Aleppo and Idlib:

1344 GMT: Syria. The AP expresses some confusion about the bomb blast in the Qaboun area of Damascus (see updates 1045 and 0753):

It was not clear what the exact target of the blast was, although authorities in Damascus said it appeared to be a police station. But photos of the scene released by the state news agency, Sana, showed what looked like a restaurant.

The area was considered too dangerous for journalists to access.

Interestingly, however, this video was uploaded yesterday and reportedly shows some sort of gunfight in the Qaboun district last night. We cannot verify the video, nor can we really interpret what a gun battle in the same neighborhood at the bombing could mean:

1323 GMT: Lebanon. The Lebanese military prosecutor has ordered the release of political prisoner Shadi Mawlawi, an outspoken member of Lebanon's opposition to Bashar al Assad. The move was likely an effort to ease tension, as gun battles have been raging in Lebanon for weeks, a kind of proxy war of the pro and anti Assad movements in Syria.

On Sunday, a prominent anti-Assad leader, Sheik Ahmed Abdul-Wahid, was gunned down, sparking even more violence, and more maneuvering by Lebanese politicians who oppose their Syrian neighbor:

"The Syrian regime is seeking to sow chaos in Lebanon!" Khaled Daher, a Sunni member of parliament, said during a fiery speech Monday at the funeral for Sheik Ahmed Abdul-Wahid, the slain anti-Syrian cleric. "But we will not be scared."

Daher stood surrounded by Sunni clerics and armed gunmen in the northern village of Bireh, Abdul-Wahid's hometown. Syria is visible across the border, on the other side of a green valley dotted with homes and farms.

1307 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordinating Committees, 9 people have been killed so far nationwide:

Among them are 2 in Deir Ezzor, 3 in Hama, 2 in Homs, 1 in Aleppo and 1 in Daraa.

James Miller takes over today's live coverage. Thanks to Scott Lucas for getting us through the morning.

1045 GMT: Syria. State media has blamed this morning's five deaths in the Damascus suburb of Qaboun (see 0753 GMT) on "an explosive device, planted by an armed terrorist group".

1025 GMT: Syria. The head of the United Nations observer mission, General Robert Mood, meets activists in Homs on Monday:

1000 GMT: Yemen. Earlier today, we had a report that the military parade for National Day had been cancelled after Monday's suicide bomb. However, this footage indicates that there was a military display during the National Anthem:

The venue was changed at the last minute, with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi viewing from behind a glass shield.

0947 GMT: Syria. CNN reports, from an "intelligence assessment" shared by "sources":

[The Assad regime] likely had about $30 billion in cash reserves to spend when unrest and bloodshed began in March 2011. He's about down to $6 billion to $9 billion.

And with the war against his own people costing him about $1 billion a month, he should have been out of business by the end of the year, according to officials in the region.

But sources are also telling CNN that al-Assad is getting a cash infusion from Iran, funneled in through banks in Lebanon, and Iran's support combined with Russia's political and economic support could keep al-Assad going for months to come.

Without further information about the assessment and who fed it to CNN, I cannot venture an opinion on how much of this is accurate evaluation and how much is spin or disinformation. However, I do have support that the following passage presents a genuine concern and priority for American and British circles:

U.S. Army Green Berets are training Jordanian special forces in a number of so called "worst-case scenarios" including Syria's chemical and biological weapons falling out of the control of government forces, U.S. sources tell CNN.

The U.S., Jordan and other allies are worried that opposition forces or groups like al Qaeda could seize some partial control of 20 key chemical and biological sites inside Syria.

0801 GMT: Tunisia. Minister of Justice Noureddine Bhiri has threatened to punish Salafist Muslims who press their views too aggressively, after a group of Salafists forced a series of bars to close.

"I'm telling those people --- the Salafists --- that if they think the state is afraid of them, the game is up and those who cross red lines are going to be punished," Bhiri said.

Dozens of alafists told the owners of bars and liquor stores in the central city of Sidi Bouzid to shut down or face violent consequences. On Saturday, theyr set fire to a local alcohol warehouse, angering some residents who in turn set alight a pile of tyres and fired shots with a hunting rifle in front of a downtown mosque.

0753 GMT: Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that a bomb in the Damascus neighbourhood of Qaboun has killed five people.

The Observatory also claimed overnight explosions in central Hama, northern Aleppom and the coastal cities of Banyas and Latakia. It said regime forces carried out raids and arrests in Aleppo and the Damascus suburbs of Douma, Harasta, and Barzeh.

0750 GMT: Syria. Prominent Palestinian writer Salameh Kaileh, held for three weeks in Syria, described the prisons as "human slaughterhouses", saying security agents beat detainees with batons, crammed them into stinking cells, and tied them to beds at night.

Kaileh was arrested on 24 April on suspicion of printing leaflets calling for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Released a week ago, Kaileh said, "It was hell on earth. I felt I was going to die under the brutal, savage and continuous beating of the interrogators, who tied me to ropes hung from the ceiling.

Kaileh was imprisoned by the Syrian regime in 1992 for eight years because of his alleged links to underground communist and leftist opposition groups.

0745 GMT: Yemen. An update to our opening story from Zeina Khodr of Al Jazeera English:

#Yemen military cancels parade to mark the reunification of country after nearly 100 soldiers killed in suicide attack claimed by Al-Qaeda

— Zeina Khodr (@ZeinakhodrAljaz) May 22, 2012

0741 GMT: Syria. The prosecutor's office in the southern Turkish province of Hatay, on the border with Syria, said two Turkish citizens and one Syrian were arrested on 16 May for plotting to kidnap the commander of the Free Syrian Army, Colonel Riad al-Asaad from a refugee camp in Apaydin.

Ankara allowed Col Asaad and other troops to create the Free Syrian Army on Turkish territory last year.

In February, Turkish authorities said five people, including a former member of Turkey's intelligence service, had been detained for abducting another FSA officer from a refugee camp and sending him back to Syria, where he was reportedly executed.

0737 GMT: Morocco. An Algerian prisoner has died in a Moroccan jail after a two-month hunger strike protesting torture and his living conditions.

Ahmed Ben Miloud was one of almost 160 detainees fasting for better conditions in prisons. He was serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in December of using a firearm in the Algerian consulate in the Moroccan border town of Oujda.

0733 GMT: Kuwait. The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Dar, resuming publication on Sunday after a three-month ban for inciting sectarian strife, indicated that it will limit coverage of protests in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

"We will be careful, especially on topics about Saudi Arabians and Bahrainis," Al-Dar editor Hussein al-Sultan said. "We will publish any articles about human rights in Bahrain if Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch publishes something. But we are not going further than this."

0616 GMT: Egypt. Minister of Planning Fayza Abul-Naga has declared that the Egyptian economy grew 5.2% in the first quarter of 2012 .

Abul-Naga also announced that Egypt has agreed to sell $500 million treasury bonds to Saudi Arabia.

0530 GMT: Syria. The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria claims 33 people died at the hands of security forces on Monday, including 11 in Hama Provice and six in Homs Province.

0515 GMT: Yemen. We open with Monday's suicide bombing in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, which killed 96 soldiers, according to a defence official.

The attack is the deadliest in the country since President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had ruled for 33 years, stepped down in February and was replaced by Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. It was claimed by insurgents who have been fighting government forces in the south of the country, particularly in Abyan Province. They promised more attacks: "We will take revenge, God willing, and the flames of war will reach you everywhere, and what happened is but the start of a jihad project in defence of honour and sanctities."

The troops slain on Monday were rehearsing for a mililtary parade to mark National Day. Officials have said the ceremony will proceed today, with President Hadi attending.