Civil war on Yemen's horizon?

SANAA, Yemen, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Parties to the protracted political conflict in Yemen see lethal force as the only way to settle their differences, a local NGO official said.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, injured during an attack on his presidential palace in June, clings to power despite international appeals for his resignation. Local media report that his forces opened fire on demonstrators while the president railed against the opposition during a national address.

Local medical officials told the United Nations' humanitarian news agency IRIN that six people were killed and 40 others were injured in clashes in Sanaa this week. Both sides, they say, have used heavy artillery.

"Each side sees lethal force is the only option to eliminate the other," Abdurrahman al-Marwani, chairman of local non-governmental Dar al-Salam Organization, told IRIN.

U.N. officials say they are concerned that, unless the international community acts swiftly, the situations could be similar to that in Somalia.

Both sides blame the other for failures in reaching a political settlement and Marwani some of the rivalries date from the 1960s when Yemen was a divided country.

"The coming days will see decisive actions: a political settlement or a wide-scale civil war," added military expert Abdulaziz Saif al-Hamzi, from the Yemeni Military Academy.