Seven Al-Qaeda-linked militants were killed in southern Yemen, residents of a city occupied by the militants said. Also in the south, rebel fighters killed a security officer.

Clashes between security forces, militants and separatists have become common in the south after nearly a year of protests calling for the end of Saleh’s 33-year rule eroded government control in the south.

Pro-Saleh protesters gathered near the presidential palace in the capital Sanaa on Friday waving Yemeni flags and photographs of the outgoing president.

“We all said signing the Gulf initiative will end protests so that life can go back to normal, but the opposition continued its protests, so that’s why were back,” said demonstrator Murad Al-Unsi.

Saleh’s General People’s Congress party had ended protests in accordance with a Gulf-brokered peace initiative meant to pull Yemen back from the brink of civil war.

“The opposition doesn’t want to calm the situation. They want to get rid of all the supporters of the People’s Congress and we are here to defend ourselves,” said Saleh Al-Matari as he held up a picture of Saleh.

Saleh said on Saturday he would go to Washington. The United States is considering whether it will grant him a visa.

Any successor to Saleh faces overlapping conflicts throughout the country, including a rebellion in the north and renewed separatist sentiment in the south, which fought a civil war with Saleh’s north in 1994 after four turbulent years of formal union.

One of the seven militants connected to Al-Qaeda and killed in the south was a nephew of Naser Al-Wuhayshi, the head of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, residents said.

Three were killed during battles in Zinjibar, the capital of province Abyan. They included leaders Asem Al-Wuhayshi, Ibrahim Al-Siyri and Huthayfa Al-Abi.

The militant group posted fliers in the markets and mosques of Jiar to announce their deaths.

Four other members of Al-Qaeda were killed in an accident in a warehouse in Al-Husn when an explosive device they were assembling went off.

Militants have controlled parts of southern Yemen since May as the protests against Saleh weakened government control of the area.

Last week a US drone attack killed another relative of the Al-Qaeda leader in one of the group’s strongholds in the strife-torn country.

Fighters have seized chunks of territory in the southern Abyan province. Fighting there has forced tens of thousands of people to flee, compounding a humanitarian crisis in a country where about half a million people are displaced.