The death tolls from the clashes in Abayn after Islamic militants took over the capital Zunjbar climbed to five on Sunday and the toll from the crackdown on a demonstration in Taiz also rose to four.

Locals in Abyan said the battles with militants continued to claim more lives, leave others injured and terrify the people, many of whom have already fled the city.

The opposition, military commanders who joined the peaceful youth-led uprising, and analysts accused President Saleh of handing Zunjbar to militants within his games and maneuvers as pressure is mounting on him to resign.

The city is surrounded by many military posts and a person wonders how militants could take over it, analysts said, adding, " Saleh has been warning of civil war and that Al-Qaeda will succeed the regime if it falls, but the truth remains is that Saleh is
involved in all this".

In Taiz, sources at the field hospital inside the freedom square said two more antigovernment protesters died from injuries.

The security forces killed four protesters and injured at least one hundred others in live bullets as thousands of people demonstrated to the police station in Al-Qahira district to call for releasing detainees, they said.

Many others were injured due to teargas and high pressure water as the forces were trying to break into the freedom square, where hundreds of thousands have been conducting a month-sit-in to call for an immediate ouster of the regime.

Earlier today, massive demonstrations were held in some cities to condemn Saleh's attempts to drag Yemen into civil war and to call for his immediate ouster.

Separately, a source at the office of Hashid sheikh Sadeq Al-Ahmer said that only the offices of the Local Administration Ministry had been handed to the mediation committee that sponsored a truce ending the deadly clashes between Al-Ahmer's loyalists and the government forces.

Other public offices will not be handed until the government forces withdraw from their positions.

Today, eyewitnesses said more forces were seen stationing on the roofs of some buildings in Al-Hasaba, the battlefield for the clashes last week, and nearby districts in what appeared to be preparation to face possible attacks by the tribal fighters.