Yemen sets up military oversight committee

Clashes between pro and anti-Saleh forces threaten to destabilise the entire region 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 .
At least two people were killed on Sunday in fighting between Saleh loyalists and opponents in the city of Taez, a hotbed of 10 months of protests that have driven the Arab world's poorest country to the brink of civil war.
Clashes between the Yemeni army and tribal fighters in the southern city of Taiz have left at least 28 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 Yemen's richer Gulf Arab neighbours, which share 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.
Workers at a field hospital in Taez, some 200 km south of the capital Sanaa, said a woman and child died from injuries suffered while trapped in a building hit by artillery fire.
The fighting eased later on Sunday. Gunmen from anti-Saleh factions held positions outside schools and government buildings - their windows shattered and their walls pocked with bullet holes - in a district of the city near where battles had raged.
Residents said on Saturday government forces had used artillery, tanks and rockets in residential areas of Taez, trapping about 3,000 families during skirmishes with opposition fighters who responded with medium and light fire.
The province's governor was trying to negotiate a ceasefire between units loyal to Saleh - including the well-armed Republican Guard commanded by his son Ahmed - and his enemies.
"There's no doubt that the army were responsible for some of the civilian deaths," Governor Hammoud Khaled al-Soufi told reporters. "Both sides shelled randomly into the city, that was a huge mistake."
One resident whose house was partly destroyed in the fighting said government forces had directed heavy fire on gunmen operating from residential areas.
"The gunmen are using hit-and-run tactics, firing from houses and then fleeing," said Najib Al-Muwadim.
Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Basindwa, an opposition leader, 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.
The EU envoy to the country, Michele Cervone d'Urso, told a news conference in the capital earlier on Sunday that he hoped to see the cabinet and military committee agreed within days.
"It is time for Yemenis to see the benefits of a peaceful transition. They hope to see electricity and the dismantling of military checkpoints."
It will also work to put an end to all ongoing violence between rival forces and supervise the withdrawal of troops and opposition- led defected army and armed tribal men from the streets of all provincial capitals, as well as other operational, procedural and policy matters related to the country's armed and security forces.