(Updates with deaths from clashes)
SANAA, Oct 20 (Reuters) - At least three people were killed on Thursday when fighting broke out in northern districts of the Yemeni capital between President Ali Abdullah Saleh's troops and forces loyal to tribal leader Sadeq al-Ahmar, sources and media reports said.
Explosions were heard and heavy exchanges of fire took place in the Hasaba and Sofan neighbourhoods of Sanaa, residents and witnesses told Reuters.
A source close to al-Ahmar said that a tribesman was killed in the clashes and 18 others injured.
Local television quoted a security source as saying that a soldier and civilian were also killed.
Two people in Hasaba were injured as well as a number of tribesmen and government troops, local television quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying earlier on Thursday.
Thousands have been demonstrating for months demanding that Saleh end his 33 years in power, and violence has spiked since he returned from Saudi Arabia in September after treatment for injuries sustained in an assassination attempt.
In the past three days, at least 26 people died in almost daily clashes between Saleh's troops and forces loyal to al-Ahmar and a tribal leader allied with the protesters.
All oil flow through Yemen's main crude pipeline to its offshore Ras Isa terminal on the Red Sea has stopped after three explosions on the pipeline in the last two weeks, a shipping source based in Yemen said on Thursday.
Saleh said on Wednesday he would sign a Gulf peace deal calling for a transfer of power only if the United States, Europe and Gulf states gave him unspecified guarantees. (Reporting by Mohammed Sudam; Writing by Jason Benham; Editing by Maria Golovnina)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
