Seven reported killed in clashes in Yemen's Taez

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SANAA: Four soldiers and three gunmen were killed on Sunday in separate clashes in the flashpoint southern Yemeni city of Taez, witnesses and a medical official said.

Four soldiers from the elite Republican Guard, which is led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh's son, and one gunman died in one confrontation, witnesses said.

Heavy fighting pitted gunmen calling themselves "Eagles of Liberty," who have sided with anti-regime protesters, against troops near the presidential palace in the country's second largest city, they said.

Two men were killed and two others were wounded in another clash with security forces in Taez, which was one of the first cities to join the opposition movement against Saleh, a medical official said.

In the capital Sanaa, meanwhile, three soldiers from dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar's First Armoured Division were killed in an "accidental" bomb blast as they gathered to receive their salaries, a military official said. (AFP)