Fighting in Yemen Continues While Truce Is Pursued
Southern Yemeni forces Friday reported a 10th day of fighting with northern civil war foes as Arab League officials tried to broker a cease-fire in the capital, Sana.
A southern military statement said the south was countering northern attacks in the mountainous Dhala region, which lies on a key road to the southern bastion of Aden.
A northern military spokesman said Thursday that northern forces had captured the province and city of Dhala, 65 miles north of Aden.
A pool report by a journalist taken to Dhala by the northern-based Defense Ministry said troops took the town Thursday evening after southern forces retreated peacefully.
An Arab League mission led by Assistant Secretary General Mohammed Said Bereqdar met government officials in Sana in the north and was due to meet President Ali Abdullah Saleh later.
Southern Yemeni leaders proposed an eight-point peace plan calling for the immediate cessation of the civil war and the formation of a national salvation government.
The southern-based Yemen Socialist Party said in a statement that its plan also called for the rival armies to return to the positions they held before the war.
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