SANAA: Hundreds of Yemeni women set fire Wednesday to traditional female veils to protest the government’s brutal crackdown against the country’s popular uprising, as overnight clashes in the capital and another city killed 25 people, officials said, violating a shortlived cease-fire signed by the government and a dissident general backing opposition groups.

In the capital Sanaa, the women spread a black cloth across a main street and threw their full-body veils, known as makrama, onto a pile, sprayed it with oil and set it ablaze. As the flames rose, they chanted: “Who protects Yemeni women from the crimes of the thugs?”

The women’s protest came as clashes have intensified between Saleh’s forces and renegade fighters who have sided with the protesters and the opposition in demands that the president step down.

Medical and local officials said up to 25 civilians, tribal fighters and government soldiers died overnight in Sanaa and the city of Taiz despite a cease-fire announcement by Saleh late Tuesday. Scores of others were wounded.
A medical official said seven tribal fighters were among those killed in Sanaa’s Hassaba district.

Another medical official said four residents and nine soldiers also died in the fighting there.
And shelling killed two Yemenis in the Old City of Sanaa, designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO, government officials said Wednesday.

Government forces also shelled houses in Taiz – a hotbed of anti-Saleh protests – killing five people, including four members of one family, a local official said. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Despite renewed violence, state media have said the cease-fire was taking hold and a mediator expressed optimism it would remain in place.

Under the accord, both government and opposition forces agreed to dismantle armed checkpoints across the capital and free all people kidnapped during months of anti-Saleh protests.

Tension between government and opposition forces has risen after a U.N. Security Council resolution condemned violence in Yemen and urged Saleh to sign the Gulf initiative to hand over power.

Saleh has clung to power in the face of more than eight months of massive near-daily protests against his rule.
During a meeting with the U.S. ambassador Tuesday, Saleh offered to sign a United States and Gulf Arab-backed power transfer deal that gives him immunity from prosecution if he steps down.

The meeting with U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein was Saleh’s first since he returned last month from Saudi Arabia, where he was treated after an attack on his presidential compound in June left him badly wounded.
Saleh has repeatedly backed out of the deal at the last minute and the opposition has dismissed his latest offer.