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Violence continues to rock the impoverished Gulf state of Yemen.

For the past ten months

a popular uprising seeking to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been underway in Yemen.

Pro-Saleh forces regularly engage in deadly clashes with armed tribesmen and military defectors

who support the protesters in Yemen's largest cities.

In the south,

al-Qaida-linked militants have occasionally taken control of entire towns.

The many months of violence

have forced more than 80,000 residents of Zinjibar to flee to neighboring provinces.

According to the Yemen Observatory for Human Rights,

about 400 people have been killed since the protests that began in February,

although group spokesman al-Jalil Waddah said

the number of those killed in the south and Arhab region could be much higher.

He added that his organization has documented many cases of political prisoners

alleging abuse at the hands of government security forces in Sana'a and the country's second largest city, Taiz.

The United States is deeply troubled by reports of attacks against civilians in Yemen.

The U.S. condemns violence by all parties

and calls for all sides to exercise maximum restraint.