Internal fighting leaves 5 dead in Yemen

SANAA, Yemen, April 13 (UPI) -- Clashes between a breakaway Yemeni general and state security forces left at least five people dead Wednesday in Sanaa, eyewitnesses said.

Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has faced pressure for most of the year to step down. Violence related to the social upheaval has claimed as many as 100 lives.

Fighting in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, killed five when gunfire broke out between rebels loyal to breakaway Gen. Ali Mohsen and pro-government forces, witnesses told al-Jazeera.

Yemeni media reports early this week said Mohsen was training members of the youth movement in the country to attack infrastructure and the government ordered extra security to the international airport in Sanaa as a precaution.

The general announced he was supporting the opposition movement in Yemen in March.

Opposition groups in Yemen said its time for Saleh to go. The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council offered a plan for the gradual departure of the president, though his opponents said it was tantamount to giving Saleh immunity.

Critics want Saleh to step down immediately. He is the first and only president of a united Yemen.