(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Head of the tribal council in Taizz sheikh Hammoud Saeed al-Mikhlafi said on Tuesday tribal gunmen have been deployed in the city to "protect the peaceful demonstrators."
"We the tribes, in support to the oppressed and in retaliation against the illegitimate government... have deployed around government installations... which we now control in order to protect from thugs".
On Tuesday, the clashes between tribesmen and troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh left at least 19 people, including three children, dead across the Arab state.
On Saturday, President Saleh left Yemen for Saudi Arabia one day after he was injured in an attack on his presidential compound in the capital Sana'a.
Saleh's deputy said that the Yemeni leader will return home within days.
Anti-government protesters, who have turned out for rallies in the major cities since late January, called for a swift transfer of power in Saleh's absence.
Hundreds of people have been killed in a brutal crackdown against the protesters since the outbreak of the Yemeni revolution.
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