Death toll from the Yemeni government's shelling on a compound of opposition tribal leader Hameed al- Ahmar rose Saturday to 19, with another 35 people injured, a key opposition media outlet reported.

"After the security forces prevented ambulances from entering the area for 24 hours to rescue the injured due to the bombardment, we found today that the death toll increased to 19 as another 35 bodyguards of the compound were still in critical conditions," Almasdar Online quoted an official of al-Ahmar's office as saying.

Al-Ahmar's compound, located a few miles away from the presidential palace in the capital Sanaa, was heavily attacked on Friday just minutes after a shell hit the wall of a small mosque inside the main palace of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the southern rim of Sanaa, in which a number of high-ranking government officials, including Saleh, were injured.

The Republican Guards also bombed a nearby house which is owned by defected Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the commander of the first Armored Division.

Meanwhile, a security official told Xinhua on Saturday that the Special Forces were combing the whole neighborhoods in Sanaa to arrest armed tribesmen.

After heavily pitched street battles raged in downtown Sanaa for two weeks, residents said Saturday that they still heard sporadic gunshots and bombings as many families were displaced for fear of the random shelling and shooting that had left tens of residents dead or injured.