Taez protesters continue to be shot at despite ceasefire pact

Clashes between pro and anti-Saleh forces threaten to destabilise the entire region Forces loyal to outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead a woman in a protest march in Taez Monday, witnesses and activists said, despite tanks withdrawing under a ceasefire pact.
Anti-Saleh tribesmen brandishing Kalashnikov rifles and members of the Republican Guard, led by Saleh's son Ahmed, were still on many of Taez's streets, witnesses said.
Medical officials have said that the death toll of the past four days exceeded 30.
Tanks, armored vehicles and opposition fighters left some areas of Taez, a hotbed of 10 months of unrest against Saleh's 33-year rule, but gunmen and snipers remained and had fired on demonstrators, witnesses said.
"Both sides violated the cease-fire agreement. We were marching peacefully and they (Saleh's forces) shot at us yet again," medical student Hamoud al-Aklamy told Reuters news agency.
Both sides had pulled out of parts of the city on the orders of a committee of lawmakers, set up by acting head of state Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi this weekend.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the center of Taez, some 200 km (120 miles) south of the capital Sanaa, to protest against attacks on peaceful protesters.
At least eight people in the anti-Saleh march were injured by gunmen seen shooting from rooftops, including a 20-year-old woman who died at a hospital after she was shot in the chest, doctors said.
The attempts to end the Taez clashes came less than two weeks after Saleh signed a deal to hand over power to his deputy as part of a Gulf initiative by Yemen's wealthy Arab neighbors to end protests there.
More than 100,000 people have been displaced by military conflicts in both the north and south.
At least 30 people, including 13 civilians, have been killed in clashes in Taez since Friday.
Mahmoud Taha, another activist, said several ambassadors are expected in Taiz to gauge the security situation there in response to an appeal from the opposition.
Huge demonstrations also took place in the capital and in other major cities demanding the withdrawal of the army from Taiz and trial of those responsible for killing civilians.
Yemen's government agreed upon a team of officials on Sunday to oversee the military after four days of battles threatened to wreck a deal easing President Ali Abdullah Saleh from office.
Clashes between the Yemeni army and tribal fighters in Taez have left at least 30 people dead over the past three days, activists and medical officials said Sunday, despite a power transfer deal signed by the president aimed at ending the country's political crisis.
Mohammed Al-Shogaa, a doctor working at a makeshift field hospital in main protest square, said that shelling by government forces of residential areas since Friday had killed 13 civilians, among them three children and two women. Activists and residents said at least eight tribal fighters also were killed, while the Defence Ministry said that seven army troops were killed over the same period.
Al-Shogaa said at least 53 people have been wounded, and that ambulances and rescue workers have not been able to reach wounded civilians because of ongoing street fighting in the impoverished Arab nation. Three hospitals in Taez reported being shelled by the country's Republican Guards, led by longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh's son.
Taez, a hotbed of anti-Saleh protests and Yemen's second-largest city, has been regularly shelled by the military in response to hit-and-run attacks by armed tribesmen.
The violence has raged despite an agreement signed by Saleh late last month to step down. The deal transfers power to the vice president and grants Saleh immunity from prosecution.
The opposition welcomed the appointment by Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi of the committee of ministers and officers who will oversee the end of fighting and the return of forces to barracks.
"The formation of the committee is a good step," said Yassin Noman, leader of the opposition Joint Meeting Parties, which had agreed with the government that the body would include equal numbers from JMP and Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC).
"What concerns us is continued moves towards implementing the transfer of power under the ... Gulf initiative without the nomination of anyone accused of human rights violations," Noman said in remarks to Reuters, in an apparent reference to Saleh allies accused of involvement in a bloody crackdown on protests.
The European Union urged the government and opposition to agree quickly to a unity interim cabinet.
It was the third move taken by Hadi to implement the GCC initiative after he set early presidential elections for February 21, 2012, and named Basindwa to lead the transitional national reconciliation government.
The committee, made up of seven members from each rival part, in addition to Hadi, includes defense and interior ministers of Basindwa's upcoming cabinet, which was due to be declared within 48 hours according to an official at Hadi's office, who told Xinhua news agency on condition of anonymity.
The committee also includes defected general Abdullah Ali Aliwa, former defense minister who joint the anti-government protest movement in March.
On Saturday, the opposition leaders urged Hadi not to delay the composition of the military-security committee which should be formed before the declaration of the new cabinet according to the GCC deal.
The opposition coalition and the ruling party agreed late last month on the GCC deal designed to end the 11-month-long turmoil that brought the impoverished Arab state on the verge of civil war and economic collapse.
According to the deal, Saleh will retain a title of honorary president in 90 days after the signing.
The deal to remove Saleh was crafted by the GCC which shares US fears that a political and security vacuum will embolden the Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda, and see multiple internal conflicts turn into full-blown civil war.
Saleh signed the deal on November 23 after backing down three times. The deal has been backed by the United Nations.
But implementation has bogged down over the formation of a government that would lead the country to a presidential election in February and the makeup of the body to run the military - key units of which are led by Saleh's relatives.
Basindwa earlier has warned his side would rethink its commitments under the transition deal if the fighting in Taez did not stop.
Political crisis has frequently halted the modest oil exports Yemen uses to finance imports of basic foodstuffs, and ushered in what aid agencies deem a humanitarian crisis. More than 100,000 people have been displaced by military conflicts in both the north and south.