Clashes erupt between Yemeni security forces, militants in Sana’a

At least 300 gunmen wearing security uniforms had entered the Interior Ministry building in central Sana’a overnight, a police official said on Tuesday.

"They were recruited and sent from the defected military base in western Sana'a,” he added.

Witnesses have also heard explosions in the area.

    Meanwhile on Sunday, loyalists to toppled ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh took a number of Interior Ministry employees hostage, but released them shortly afterward.

On February 27, Yemen’s former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh formally stepped down and handed over power to his deputy Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, who is a UK-trained field marshal.

The power transfer occurred under a Saudi-backed deal brokered by the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council in April 2011 and signed by Saleh in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on November 23, 2011.

Yemen is the Arab world’s poorest country. Forty percent of the people of Yemen are living on two US dollars a day or less and one third are wrestling with chronic hunger.