North-south battle rages inside key Yemeni base

on the road to Aden, in the biggest battle between Yemen's rival armies

since the civil war erupted two weeks ago.

Rocket and tank fire added to the deafening noise of battle inside the

sprawling six-by-three-mile army and air force base where troops from

the south and north fought each other for control.

The base governs the approaches to Aden, 40 miles away. Its capture

would give the north a springboard from which to attack the southern

port city of 350,000 people.

Witnesses who got inside the base's perimeter today heard heavy

gunfire and saw evidence of savage fighting.

One correspondent who entered the base from Aden said southern troops

loyal to Vice-President Ali Salem al-Baidh appeared to control most of

the site.

At about the same time other reporters from Sanaa, the capital of

northern President Ali Abdullah Saleh, saw northern troops backed by

heavy armour well inside the base and said they were tightening their

grip despite stiff resistance.

Columns of black smoke billowed into the air and northern officers

said a fuel storage depot had been hit by southern gunfire.

Southern planes flew at high altitude overhead but did not appear to

drop any bombs and a northern army officer said they were apparently

directing southern artillery fire.

Northern commanders said the pitched battle to enter the base started

on Monday. One spoke of ''bloody initial resistance'' and estimated

southern troop strength at 10,000.

No-one would estimate casualties, although one officer said the battle

was ''a heavy one in which aircraft, missiles, cluster bombs, and all

types of tanks and artillery fire were used.''

A major leading the southern forces said: ''This is an invasion and we

will not allow it.'' Asked how long the southern units would hold their

positions against a force almost double their size the 45-year-old

officer, who trained for four years in Moscow, said: ''We are staying

here till we die.''

Northern troops who claimed to have taken most of the Al-Anad base

were later claimed to be advancing on southern units who were said to

have fallen back to a new defensive line just 20 miles north of Aden.

A northern source said units were advancing on al-Hutuh town where

retreating southern forces from al-Anad base were believed to have

redeployed.

Other northern troops advancing from a western coastal region were

reported to have reached al-Makhnaq town, 20 miles west of the city.

The charred wreckage of a southern helicopter containing the bodies of

two crewmen lay just outside the camp as a northern officer claimed his

men were mopping up pockets of resistance round Al-Anad ready to advance

on Aden.

''We hope to be there in Aden before the 22nd,'' he said. The date is

the fourth anniversary of the merger between North and South which

created the ''unified'' state of Yemen.--Reuter.