In 2 weeks of Yemen clashes ‘140 dead’

           At least 140 people have been killed in two weeks of clashes between Yemeni security forces and suspected Al Qaeda gunmen in the Southern city of Zinjibar, a military official said on Monday.

          “At least 80 security officials including soldiers have been killed and more than 200 wounded in clashes with Al Qaeda militants since Zinjibar fell under the (Al Qaeda) network’s grip” in late May, said the military official.

          Security officials say the militants are Al Qaeda fighters but the political Opposition accuses the government of embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh of inventing a jihadist threat to head off Western pressure on his 33-year rule.

Gaddafi amid deadly clashes

Gaddafi offered way out amid deadly clashes

                        Moamer Gaddafi guarantees to leave Libya but has yet to receive a reply, while rebel forces say his forces have killed 20 people in a fierce assault on Misrata. Fresh NATO-led strikes on Friday sent up plumes of smoke in Tripoli, where Gaddafi has his residence, but US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned the air war on the strongman's forces could be in peril because of military shortcomings. 

                       The British defence ministry said its fighters had destroyed four tanks "hidden in an orchard" near the town of Al-Aziziyah, southwest of Tripoli. Tornado and Typhoon jets also bombed a military base at Al-Mayah on the western outskirts of the capital, it said. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government had offered exit "guarantees" to the embattled 

                      Gaddafi "has no other option than to leave Libya-with a guarantee to be given to him," Erdogan said on NTV television. "We have given him this guarantee. We have told him we will help him to be sent wherever he wants to go," he added, without elaborating. "Depending on the reply we will get from him, we will take up the issue with our (NATO) allies, but unfortunately we have received no reply so far." His comments came after a day of deadly fighting near the port city of Misrata, the rebels' most significant enclave in western Libya, some 200 kilometers from Tripoli. Gaddafi's forces had bombarded the Dafnia area on Misrata's outskirts with Grad rockets, heavy artillery and tank shells, a rebel said. 

                                "Twenty people, both civilians and rebels, were killed and more than 80 wounded," in the sector, 35 kilometres from Misrata city centre, he added. But they had beaten back an attack by loyalist troops, leaving "dead and wounded among the Gaddafi forces," he said. In Tripoli, residents reported several waves of blasts had rocked the city on Friday. 

                            Mikhail Margelov said he would visit Tripoli to try to find a solution to the conflict, having met the opposition in their Benghazi stronghold.