Libya Live Blog 19MAR11 from AL JAZEERA

THE latest from the Al Jazeera Libya live blog, click the header to go to their blog for the latest news....

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As the uprising in Libya continues, we update you with the latest developments from our correspondents, news agencies and citizens across the globe. Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

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(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

• Timestamp: 

  1:36pm

  Snipers loyal to Gaddafi have killed two people in Misurata, a resident told Reuters. \
  "We have two people dead this morning ... because there are snipers on some houses and they are shooting people, they are shooting whoever they see," the resident, called Saadoun, told Reuters by telephone.
  
• Timestamp: 

  1:23am

  The head of the Libyan National Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, just denied Libyan state TV reports that defected interior Minister Abdel Fatah Younis has defected the rebels and joined Gaddafi forces again.
  It seems that there is a media war going on between Gaddafi and rebels.
  
• Timestamp: 

  1:15pm

  Libyan state TV says that interior minister Abdel Fatah Yunes, who defected to the rebels at the beginning of March, had returned to the Gaddafi camp and to his old job.
  
• Timestamp: 

  1:08pm

  Libyan forces loyal to Gaddafi fired artillery shells into the rebel-held city of Misurata and water supplies were still cut off, a resident said.
  "They (Gaddafi's forces) bombed the town with four or five artillery shells in the early hours today. The situation is relatively calm now. But they are still on the outskirts of the town, and water to Misrata is still cut off," the resident, called Mohammed, told Reuters by telephone from the city.
  Libyan government officials deny attacking rebels and say they are observing a ceasefire.
  Reports from Misrata could not be verified independently because authorities in Tripoli have prevented journalists from reaching the city.
  
• Timestamp: 

  1:00pm

  Libya's government announced an immediate ceasefire on Friday, but government forces were said to have entered the western edge of the city on Saturday. Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher reports.
  
  
• Timestamp: 

  12:18am

  Here is revised text of the speeches that Gaddafi's spokesman read out:
  The first letter to brother leader to Barack Obama:
  "To our son, his excellency, Mr Baracka Hussein Obama. I have said to you before, that even if Libya and the United States of America enter into a war, god forbid, you will always remain a son. Your picture will not be changed. I want you to remain in the same image. I have all the people of Libya with me, and I'm prepared to die and we have all the men, children and women with me. Nothing more. Al Qaeda is an armed organisation, passing through Algeria, Mauritania and Mali. What would you do if you found them controlling American cities with the power of weapons? What would you do, so I can follow your example."
  Letter to Ban Ki Moon, Sarkozy and Cameron:
  "Libya is not yours, Libya is for the Libyans. The security council, their resolution is void because it is not according to the charter to interfere with the internal affairs of the country. … You have no right. You will regret if you get involved in this, our country. We can never shoot a single bullet on our people, it is Al Qaeda organisation."
  
• Timestamp: 

  12:14pm

  A spokesman for the rebel National Libyan Council reported a bombardment on the western town of Zintan by Gaddafi forces and said five shells had fallen on the outskirts.
  The spokesman, who was named only as Adel, was speaking to Al Arabiya television.
  
• Timestamp: 

  12:03pm

  Gaddafi spokesman reads out letter to president Obama:
  

  To Baracka Hussein Obama... I have all the Libyan people supporting me and they are prepared to die for me... I am facing al Qaeda here - what would you do?

  The second letter is to Ban Ki-Moon, president Sarkozy of France and the UK's David Cameron:
  

  Libya is not yours.. You have no right to intervene into our internal affairs. This is our country, it is not your country. We can never shoot a single bullet onto our people...

  He also warns the world leaders of retaliation if they persist.
  
• Timestamp: 

  11:49am

  Abdul Jalil, head of National Libyan Council, also said:
  

  Now there is a bombardment by artillery and rockets on all districts of Benghazi
  The international community is late in intervening to save civilians from Gaddafi's forces. Today in Benghazi there will be a catastrophe if the international community does not implement the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council.
  We appeal to the international community, to the all the free world, to stop this tyranny from exterminating civilians.

• Timestamp: 

  11:26am

  Abdul Jalil also tells us that Benghazi hospitals are now being flooded with victims. He says that the pro-democracy fighters do not have enough weapons and numbers to confront Gaddafi:
  "We only have light arms - Gaddafi seems to have new and powerful weapons."
  
• Timestamp: 

  11:11am

  Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the head of the Libyan Interim Council, tells Al Jazeera that residential areas in Benghazi are under attack by artillery and tanks. He also said that the plane shot down belongs to the rebels.
• Timestamp: 

  10:55am

  Al Jazeera's James Bays reporting live from Benghazi:
  

  We are still hearing gunfire in the distance - I heard an explosion just moments ago from that direction...
  We have seen anti-aircraft guns going along the road in that direction, we have also seen ambulances and medical staff making their way in that direction in the last half hour or so...

• Timestamp: 

  10:49am

  Blake Hounshell, Managing Editor of Foreign Policy magazine, sent us this footage from today's attack on Benghazi:
  
  
• Timestamp: 

  10:45am

  The Security Council "has acted responsibly to protect and save the lives of defenceless civilians who are faced with brutal acts of violence carried out by the Libyan authorities," the South African foreign ministry says.
  The decision "constitutes an important element for the protection of civilians and the safety of the delivery of humanitarian assistance to those most vulnerable and those desperately in need of such assistance," it said in a statement.
  
• Timestamp: 

  10:30am

  The international community must act fast over the situation in Libya, a French government source says.
  "Everything is ready (to act) but the decision is now a political one. It's clear we have to move quickly," the source said, hours before France was due to host an international meeting to discuss military intervention.
  
• Timestamp: 

  10:28am

  Pro-democracy fighters have erected concrete barricades on the roads leading to the courthouse building where the rebel National Libyan Council has its base.
  Khalid al-Sayeh, a rebel military spokesman, told Reuters:
  

  They have entered Benghazi from the west. Where are the Western powers? They said they could strike within hours.

• Timestamp: 

  10:23am

  Al Jazeera shows pictures of the fighter jet as it was shot down:
  
  
• Timestamp: 

  10:09am

  Picture of the Al Jazeera vehicle that was hit in Benghazi:
  
  
• Timestamp: 

  10:04am

  Artillery shells being shot into Benghazi from about 20km away, Al Jazeera's Tony Birtely reports.
  
• Timestamp: 

  9:54am

  Libya's government says that its armed forces are under attack west of the rebel-held stronghold of Benghazi and have responded in self-defence.
  This was issued in a statement carried by the official Jana news agency:
  

  The gangs of Al-Qaeda attacked the units of the Libyan armed forces stationed to the west of Benghazi.

  The statement accused the rebels of using "a helicopter and a fighter jet to bomb the Libyan armed forces in blatant violation of the no-fly zone imposed by the UN Security Council."
  
• Timestamp: 

  9:36am

  Al Jazeera reporters in Benghazi say that their vehicle has been hit by a mortar round - the vehicle was not occupied at the time. Also reports of artillery attacks on Gamal Abdel Nasser street in central Benghazi.
  
• Timestamp: 

  9:14am

  Al Jazeera's Tony Birtely says that a plane has been shot down in Benghazi. More details to follow.
• Timestamp: 

  9:01am

  Reports from Al Jazeera reporter in Benghazi that pro-Gaddafi forces have entered the suburbs of the city.
  
• Timestamp: 

  8:51am

  Al Jazeera reporter in Benghazi says some shelling happening now, with a jet just crossing over the town. Reports of some people being injured in the bombing, possibly some deaths.
  
• Timestamp: 

  7:29am

  "The explosions started about 2 a.m. Gaddafi's forces are advancing, we hear they're 20kms from Benghazi," Faraj Ali, a local resident, said. 

  "It's land-based fire. We saw one aircraft," he added. 
• Timestamp: 

  6:49am

  Large explosions were heard in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, the rebel stronghold, early on Saturday, a Reuters witness said.
  A fighter jet could be heard over the city, the witness said, adding that the explosions were strong enough to shake a building.
  
• Timestamp: 

  3:05am

  Speaking after the response by Moussa Koussa, Libya's foreign minister, on Friday, Gaddafi said there was no justification for the UN resolution aimed at ending violence in Libya.
  

  This is blatant colonialism. It does not have any justification. This will have serious consequences on the Mediterranean and on Europe.

  In 2011 they are colonising us, massacring us, and imposing one no-fly zone after the other and one military attack after another. What is this racism? What is this hatred?

• Timestamp: 

  1:48am

  Gerard Araud, the French envoy to the UN, said he expects military intervention in Libya within hours of a Paris summit on Saturday.
  
• Timestamp: 

  12:40am

  Rebels in Benghazi braced amid rumours that pro-Gaddafi forces were within striking distance of the city and planning an evening assault. Hundreds of men, some on pick-up trucks mounted with machine-guns, flooded out of the city in response to a call from the rebel-run radio to man their posts.
  
• Timestamp: 

  12:33am

  A US national security official on Friday said forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, continued to advance towards the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi despite the ceasefire proclamation.
  
• Timestamp: 

  12:01am

  Welcome to Al Jazeera's live blog for March 19, covering unfolding events in Libya and providing you with up-to-the-minute updates. To catch up on everything that's happened over the last 24 hours, why not check out yesterday's live blog, or our news story, which wraps up developments?
  

Live Blog - Libya Feb 25 from AL JAZEERA

UPDATES via the live Al Jazeera blog (link on this blog) of the civil war in Libya. The picture of Free Libya is beautiful......

[Photo: Reuters]

As the uprising in Libya enters its tenth day, we keep you updated on the developing situation from our headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

 Blog: Feb17 - Feb18 - Feb19 - Feb20 - Feb21 - Feb22 - Feb23 - Feb24
AJE Live Stream  - Special Coverage: Libya Uprising - Twitter Audio: Voices from Libya
Benghazi Protest Radio (Arabic)

(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

February 25, 2011

1:33am: According UK based newspaper, The Telegraph, Muammar Gaddafi's assets worth billions of pounds will be seized by Britain.

In total, the Libyan regime is said to have around £20bn in liquid assets, mostly in London, according to the newspaper report.

1:26am: Twitter user @Farrah3m posted this to Twitpic:

1:22am: Barack Obama and Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, have sought to quell fears that unrest in Libya would put oil prices on a long term upward trajectory.

12:30am: Barack Obama, the U.S. president, spoke on Thursday with the leaders of France, Britain and Italy to discuss their "range of options" as they considered how to respond to the crisis in Libya, the White House said.

12:00am: Canada defended its efforts to evacuate its citizens from Libya on Thursday amid problems getting a charter flight into Tripoli. The charter was supposed to pick up some 200 Canadians in the Libyan capital, and Lawrence Cannon, the Foreign Affairs Minister, had planned to welcome them back at Rome's airport.  

11:30pm: As per latest reports, the US government has asked its citizens to leave Libya immediately.

11:10pm  AJE reports:

Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam, one of Gaddafi's top security official and a cousin, defected on Wednesday evening, saying in a statement issued by his Cairo office that he left the country "in protest and to show disagreement" with "grave violations to human rights and human and international laws.

Sources tell Al Jazeera that Al-Dam was travelling to Syria via Cairo on a private plane and that he went to Egypt in protest against the violence deployed by the government in Libya.

10:57pm: From our lead story on Libya tonight:

Mustafa Abdel Galil, who resigned three days ago from his post as the country's justice minister, spoke to Al Jazeera at a meeting of tribal leaders and representatives of eastern Libya in the city of Al Baida.

He warned that Gaddafi has biological and chemical weapons, and will not hesitate to use them.

'We call on the international community and the UN to prevent Gaddafi from going on with his plans in Tripoli,' he said.

 'At the end when he’s really pressured, he can do anything. I think Gaddafi will burn everything left behind him.'

In eastern Libya, town keeps shaky hold after fighting off forces loyal to Gaddafi & Gaddafi's son denies crackdown; loyalists reportedly continue attacks 24FEB11

MORE on the civil war in Libya from the Washington Post. After reading these reports and others from NPR and other media it is a reminder for Americans that we can not take our freedom for granted, and that democracy is not a spectator sport....
By Leila Fadel
Washington Post Staff Writer


BAIDA, LIBYA - The young men of this idyllic town nestled in the Green Mountain region of eastern Libya took control here in a days-long battle. First they fought their way into a security camp protected by 2,000 mercenaries and other forces loyal to the government of Moammar Gaddafi. Then they took over the streets.
When Awad Mohammed's five sons joined the battle, he stood on the sidelines with his wife. He felt fear and pride.
"They had nothing - just sticks, stones and bare chests. They took the guns from the mercenaries and used them against them," said Mohammed, an Arabic literature professor. "We never imagined the young people could do this. . . . I will die for them. These are all my sons."
Now these sons of Baida - some just 13 and armed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and knives - man the lawless roads as they brace for the next possible attack. They are keenly aware that their leader of 41 years has shown no qualms about killing his own people.
Throughout Wednesday, opposition activists stayed in touch with one another through weak cellphone connections, gathering news of defectors, attacks in the distant capital and rumors that Gaddafi would send planes here to bomb the town.
The scenic wonder of Baida - with its pure blue sky and lush mountains - belies the strength of its residents, who are threatening to help put an abrupt end to Gaddafi's reign through a nationwide uprising that has already claimed much of the country's eastern half. Within just over a week, the government has gone from total control here to none. But Baida's liberation came at a steep price.
At least 90 civilians have been killed in the 10-mile stretch from Baida to the town of Shahat, according to doctors and witnesses. In just one neighborhood, there have been 17 funerals, including one Wednesday.
Now, everyone is armed. The police stations and other government buildings have been burned, and pictures of Gaddafi lie shredded along the roads.
Outside the local parliament building in Baida, once controlled by Gaddafi's revolutionary committee, men and women demonstrated Wednesday, chanting "Free! Free! Libya!" Others replaced Gaddafi's green flag with the red, black and green flag that predates his rise to power.
Inside the building, community leaders met to plan for the future of an area that has no government and could easily descend into chaos. The leaders formed four committees: street cleaning, security, food supplies and medical services.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil was among those who had gathered here. Only three days ago, he was Gaddafi's justice minister. He resigned Sunday to protest the "coldblooded" killings of civilians by "tanks, bombs, bullets and mercenaries," he said.
Jalil said the area's residents were prepared to defend themselves.
The government has threatened to cut off water, electricity and food supplies to starve residents out. State television has declared, falsely, that the area is now an Islamic state, in an effort to demonize the popular revolt.
"The fundamental thing that we're committed to today is to prepare for the embargo," Jalil said. "We are going to fight, and if we have to, we'll fast for a few days and depend on our neighbors."
Jalil also said he was concerned, not least about the uncontrolled distribution of weapons in a place where teenage boys have begun driving tanks in the streets.
"Our strategy is to collect the arms and use them for good and keep national unity," he said as men gathered around to thank him for resigning and to give him flowers.
While it is tense, there are no signs of infighting here. Everyone is armed, but the people are united by their contempt for Gaddafi.
Just days ago, the picture was far different, with bloody battles in the streets. On Wednesday, spent ammunition from rifles and antiaircraft weapons littered the streets. Fresh blood stained the ground.
Residents said mercenaries flown in from other parts of Africa had gone on a killing rampage.
The town's young men reacted with grief, and with rage.
One man took a tractor and broke down the walls of the Kitab security base in Shahat, where mercenaries were housed, witnesses and participants said. In a battle that lasted a day and a half, the residents overwhelmed the forces, killing some and taking others hostage. The captives are being held in secret locations throughout the area.
At the local airport, residents have blocked the runways with large rocks, car parts and other debris to keep the government from flying in reinforcements.
This area has a history of resistance to unwanted rulers. Every child knows the name of Omar Mukhtar, a fighter who battled Libya's colonial masters, the Italians. An uprising in the 1990s was violently quelled by Gaddafi.
On Wednesday, the young men celebrated their victory in a local square, with a portrait of Mukhtar hanging overhead.
Before the uprising began, it was common for people to disappear for speaking even one word against Gaddafi or his government, residents said.
"The only place you opened your mouth was at the dentist," said Abdul Hamid Gebril, a law professor.
A teacher whose cousin disappeared in 2003 said the fate of those who vanish is widely understood.
"Anyone who enters the prisons of Moammar, we know after a few years that person is killed," she said while speaking inside her home, too afraid to allow her name to be printed. "Even we don't know where they're buried. You say something and the next day the intelligence comes and that's it. You never hear from them again."
The uprising must continue, she said, but it will be bloodier than the ones that succeeded in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt.
"In Egypt, people sat in the square with children, fathers and mothers and slept, and they sang and danced. I saw them on television," she said. "Here our streets are bloody, and our youths are killed."
Gaddafi's son denies crackdown; loyalists reportedly continue attacks

By Leila Fadel, Ernesto Londono and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Foreign Service

BAIDA, LIBYA - Moammar Gaddafi's son denied Thursday that Libya has killed large numbers of protesters through airstrikes and other attacks, while a former top Gaddafi aide said he quit the government to protest its violent crackdown.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, Gaddafi's son, disputed the death tolls that have have been reported since the protests began 10 days ago, saying allegations that hundreds have been killed are a "joke."
"Tripoli is quiet," he said in an interview aired on Libyan state television. "Life is normal."
The junior Gaddafi said Libya intends to provide Western journalists on Friday access to Tripoli, the capital, and other cities, so they can corroborate the government's claim that the country remains under Gaddafi's control.
The U.S. State Department issued a warning to Western journalists who have entered Libya in recent days without government permission. Citing information received from top Libyan officials, the warning said some members of CNN, BBC Arabic and al-Arabiya would be allowed into the country, but any reporters not approved by the government as part of that effort would be considered al-Qaeda "collaborators."
"The Libyan government said that it was not responsible for the safety of these journalists, who risked immediate arrest on the full range of possible immigration charges," the State Department warning said.
Libya appears dangerously fractured, with Gaddafi's regime intent on fighting but its authority beyond Tripoli in doubt. The longtime ruler has tightened his grip on the capital, witnesses say, by flooding the streets with militiamen and loyalist troops who were reportedly roaming the streets and shooting opponents from SUVs.
Rebels who launched an uprising last week have consolidated their control of key eastern cities, however, and continued advancing west across the coastal strip, where most of the country's population is clustered. The opposition has called for a large protest Friday.
In the city of Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, an army unit attacked a mosque where protesters had been stationed for several days, a witness told the Associated Press. The soldiers opened fire with automatic weapons and hit the mosque's minaret with anti-aircraft missiles, the witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
He told the AP there were casualties, but couldn't provide exact figures. Some of the young men among the protesters had hunting rifles, he said. He said a day earlier an envoy from Gaddafi had come to the city and warned protesters, "Either leave or you will see a massacre."
"What is happening is horrible, those who attacked us are not the mercenaries; they are sons of our country," the witness said, sobbing. After the assault, thousands massed in the city's main Martyrs Square, shouting "leave, leave," in reference to Gaddafi, he said.
The other attack came at a small airport outside Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, where rebels claimed control on Wednesday, AP reported. Militiamen on Thursday attacked a line of residents who were protecting the facility, opening fire with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, said a resident who saw the assault
"They left piles of human remains and swamp of blood," the resident told the Associated Press. "The hospitals are packed with those killed and injured."
In Cairo, a cousin and close adviser to Gaddafi said he had defected from the regime to protest its crackdown on the uprising, the Associated Press reported. Gadhaf al-Dam, who arrived in Egypt several days ago, is a member of the Libyan leader's inner circle, handling Libyan-Egyptian relations.
Dam said in a statement that the crackdown has seen "grave violations to human rights and human and international laws," AP reported. He said he left Libya "in protest and to show disagreement."
Oil prices hit $100 a barrel because of the turmoil in the North African oil exporter, a peak not reached since 2008. In Washington and other capitals, attention turned to the possible responses to the crackdown, including economic sanctions or imposition of a no-flight zone over Libya to prevent the use of aircraft against civilians.
In Washington, President Obama said the United States was developing a "full range of options" and would intensify discussions with other nations to address the violent unraveling of Gaddafi's regime.
"The suffering and bloodshed are outrageous and unacceptable," Obama said. The Libyan government "must be held accountable for its failure . . . and face the cost of continued violations of human rights."
But enormous questions remained about whether any foreign powers could wield the influence necessary to head off Libya's dizzying plunge into disorder, much less persuade Gaddafi to reconsider his vow to fight to the death in defense of his 41-year-old regime.
The independent organization Human Rights Watch has estimated that 300 people have been killed in a week of clashes, although some Libyan opposition groups and Western diplomats have said that they fear the figure may be much larger.
A 600-passenger ferry chartered by the U.S. government was in Libya to evacuate U.S. citizens to the nearby island of Malta, but its departure has been delayed by turbulent weather.
Residents reached by telephone in Tripoli on Wednesday said Gaddafi's loyalists appeared to have reclaimed control of the capital after several days of skirmishes. Stores and offices were shut down, the residents said, while blue-uniformed militiamen set up checkpoints and regime loyalists cleaned up graffiti calling for him to step down.
But opposition groups appeared to have taken control of cities across a broad swath of northern Libya that stretched hundreds of miles from Tobruk, near the Egyptian border, to as far as Misurata, 120 miles east of the capital. The loosely organized opposition protected key roads and government installations, with men in fluorescent orange vests patrolling the area, armed with sticks or rocket-propelled grenades.
A state-run radio station previously known as Eastern Radio was under the control of opposition groups, which renamed it Free Radio. In and around Baida, along the northern coast west of Tobruk, the once-omnipresent portraits of Gaddafi had been ripped down or burned.
"Oh Moammar, dictator, it's your turn now," people chanted.
There was ample evidence of recent fighting in Baida. Buildings on Revolution Street were pocked with bullet holes. At La Braq Airport, spent ammunition from rifles and antiaircraft rounds littered the ground. Civilians and defected soldiers climbed on tanks and blocked the runways to stop planes from landing - a precaution, residents said, after people were gunned down last week by purported mercenaries flown in from elsewhere in Africa.
The ability of the rebels to swiftly push west suggested that Libya's powerful tribes, long a beneficiary of Gaddafi's patronage, were turning against him. In recent days, tribal leaders have declared their support for the opposition after Gaddafi's use of warplanes and helicopter gunships to kill hundreds of protesters.
Indeed, the eastern tribes have long complained of being denied a share of Libya's wealth and resources, and eastern cities such as Benghazi have been bastions of opposition. Such grievances led to a revolt in the 1990s and underpinned the ongoing rebellion that began in Benghazi last week, in a country of as many as 140 tribes.
The east's al-Zuwayya tribe threatened to shut down oil production unless authorities stopped the "oppression of the protesters." The Warfala, one of the country's biggest and most influential tribes, has also reportedly joined the opposition. The tribe controls areas around Tripoli.
"We are seeing more and more tribal defections. A lot of police and military in Tobruk, Benghazi and other eastern cities defected because their tribal leaders had ordered them," Ronald Bruce St. John, an author and expert on Libya, said in a telephone interview. "I think you will see more and more in western Libya."
So far, St. John said, it appears that the major tribes in and around Tripoli continue to support Gaddafi.
The signs of a widening rebellion in eastern Libya came as more senior military commanders and government officials defected. The Libyan newspaper Quryna reported that an air force pilot bailed out of his Soviet-made warplane and allowed it to crash rather than following an order to bomb Benghazi.
Residents of Tripoli said a sense of fear pervaded the capital.
"We have been indoors for the past three days," said Rahma, a Libyan American reached by telephone, who insisted that her last name not be used to avoid any retribution. "Tripoli is like a ghost town, as if nobody exists here."
She said her father, also a U.S. citizen, had been detained during an anti-government demonstration a few days ago in front of Tripoli's courthouse and was being held at a hospital on a military base. She said she fears for his safety after listening to Gaddafi's speech, in which he threatened to execute anyone going against the regime.
"We don't know what's going to happen to him," Rahma said.
She said two sons of a neighbor were killed at a protest. The next day, Rahma said, the neighbor placed a green Libyan national flag by her house to show support for Gaddafi and avoid being targeted by his loyalists.
fadell@washpost.com londonoe@washpost.com
Londono reported from Cairo. Wilgoren reported from Washington. Correspondent Sudarsan Raghavan contributed reporting from Sanaa, Yemen. Staff writer Howard Schneider in Washington contributed to this report.