Saleh's absence leaves Yemen in crisis

The advance on Taiz showed the government's already tenuous control over the country has slipped further since President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded in a rocket attack on his compound in the capital Sanaa on Friday and travelled to neighbouring Saudi Arabia for treatment.

Saleh left as Yemen was edging closer to civil war. Security officials said Taiz, a city of about a million located 150 miles south of Sanaa, was quiet yesterday after two days of fighting during which troops loyal the regime fought rival tribesmen trying to storm the presidential palace there.

The Interior Ministry has denied that armed men are controlling Taiz, according to Yemen state TV.

Taiz has been the scene of some of the largest anti-Saleh protests since an uprising against his rule began in February - and also scene of some of the fiercest crackdowns.

Tribal fighters entered the city late last week and attacked government troops, apparently to protect protesters or to seek revenge for deaths in the crackdowns.

In a rare positive development, a spokesman for the tribal chieftain whose followers fought loyalist troops in recent days in Sanaa said tribal forces have made a partial withdrawal from state buildings they had occupied during fighting last week.