Yemeni Tribesmen Advance on the Capital

Sanaa's airport has reportedly suspended flights because of the heavy fighting

The 11-day battle between Yemen's security forces and the powerful Ahmar tribe has largely taken place in the northern Hasaba neighborhood of the capital, Sanaa, where overnight fighting disrupted flights and killed at least 15 people including a seven-year-old girl hit by a stray bullet, according to AFP. But in recent hours a new battleground is emerging at a military checkpoint north of the capital, where thousands of rural tribal fighters from Amran Province are battling with government troops in an attempt to join the Ahmar fighters in their Hasaba stronghold. Yemen's defense ministry claims the army stopped the tribesmen from entering Sanaa, the AP notes, but an army officer who has defected from the military says the fighting is still raging and that the tribesmen captured and later released 30 Yemeni soldiers. An Amran resident added that warplanes are flying over the area.

That's not the only alarming development today. Witnesses are also telling AFP that previously unarmed protesters in the restive southern city of Taiz have started carrying weapons as they clash with security forces. One Yemeni official tells The New York Times that the fighting is the worse he's seen in the country since 1994, when Yemen endured a two-month civil war. Footage documenting the violent clashes in Sanaa has been hard to come by, but some surfaced today, via Yemeni activist Ibrahim Mothana: