Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Three people were killed Tuesday during clashes in Taiz, a center of protests against the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to a field hospital staff member and a youth leader.
Another 26 were injured by gunfire, said Yasser Nomeree, the hospital staffer, and Bushra Maktari, the youth leader. The Organizing Committee of the Youth Revolution said Republican Guards shot at demonstrators in downtown Taiz.
Meanwhile, fires raged in some areas of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Tuesday as clashes took place in seven parts of the city, according to eyewitnesses.
The al-Ahmar family -- which opposes the regime -- captured government buildings in the Hasaba neighborhood of Sanaa, according to eyewitnesses.
Hasaba is home to Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, leader of the powerful al-Hashid tribe, whose forces oppose the government.
Government spokesman Tarek Shami said the al-Ahmar family "started occupying government buildings, therefore the government had to react."
Hundreds of loud explosions were heard Tuesday in Sanaa as tanks fired mortar shells and heavy artillery fire. Thick black smoke hung in the air as thousands of armed men clashed on city streets.
"The government has ended the cease-fire and started attacking," said Abdulqawi Qaisi, spokesman for the al-Ahmar family. "The tribes of Ahmar need to defend themselves."
Over the weekend, Shami said the government would halt all military action against the tribe for two days to allow mediators to broker a deal between the two sides.
The powerful al-Hashid tribe, which includes the al-Ahmar family, rose up against Saleh this month after the longtime leader backed out of a regionally brokered deal meant to ease him out of office and end months of demonstrations.
Catherine Ashton, foreign policy chief of the European Union, denounced the attacks in Taiz.
"I am shocked and condemn in the strongest terms the use of force and live ammunition against peaceful protesters in the city of Taiz," Ashton said in a statement Tuesday. "The continued repression by the Yemeni regime and grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law cannot be accepted."
Ashton also called for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to launch an independent assessment.
U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay denounced the "intensified use of force against anti-Government protesters," according to a statement from the office of the high commissioner Tuesday.
On Monday, security forces set fire to tents and tore through demonstrators' camps in Freedom Square in Taiz with bulldozers, an activist and eyewitnesses said.
The protest camp was virtually eliminated on Monday, according to Maktati. A field hospital was also dismantled, with the equipment taken away by troops, Maktati, the youth leader, said.
At least 70 tents had been burned down by security forces since late Sunday night, according to witnesses.
On Monday, security forces arrested youths and took them from the streets to an unknown location, Maktati said.
Abdu Ganadi, a government spokesman, said security forces were rescuing colleagues who had been captured and beaten by protesters.
"We did not attack the protesters," Ganadi said. "Reports are all exaggerated. Only two were killed."
He said protesters' tents were burned by people attacked by the protesters, and that tents that burned were empty.
Troops also used water cannons Monday to disperse thousands of protesters in Taiz. A day earlier, clashes left at least 20 people dead and 200 wounded, according to eyewitnesses and two medical officials who could not be named because of security concerns.
Maktati said the attacks would not stop their protests.
"Our revolution will not stop even if hundreds are killed every day," said Sameer Al-Samaee, a leading youth activist in Taiz. "Killing innocent civilians always leads to war crime charges, and that is what we are seeking for Saleh."
The nation's largest cell phone network was ordered to shut down Sunday, according to a senior official with the country's Communications Ministry who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The SABAFON network was ordered shut down because of violations and unpaid fines over the last few years, the Communications Ministry official told CNN.
A management official with the SABAFON network, who also was not authorized to speak to the press, confirmed the shutdown. The official denied the government's allegations and said the move appeared to be a tactic to pressure members of the al-Ahmar family, including Hamid al-Ahmar -- the president's chief political enemy.
The official said members of the al-Ahmar family are majority shareholders in SABAFON, with the largest shareholder being Hamid al-Ahmar.
Saleh has resisted protests calling on him to step down after 33 years in power.
The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa has condemned what it called the "unprovoked and unjustified attack" on demonstrators in Taiz. It praised the protesters and called on Saleh "to move immediately on his commitment to transfer power."
The recent fighting has raised fears of a full-blown civil war in Yemen, an impoverished, arid and mountainous nation that has been a key U.S. ally in the battle against the al Qaeda terrorist network.CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.
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