One protester killed, 50 injured in clashes in Yemen

by Mohamed al-Azaki, Wang Qiuyun

SANAA, Feb. 17, 2011 (Xinhua) --

One protester was killed and about 50 were injured Thursday in clashes between police and anti-regime protesters in Yemen's capital of Sanaa and southern port city of Aden, local sources told Xinhua.

Anti-riot policemen fired warning shots Thursday evening to break up a massive march of several thousands of anti-government protesters in Aden, killing one protester and injuring about 10.

"One anti-government demonstrator was killed by random warning shots of the police who tried to disperse the rallies in several districts of Aden, and at least 10 others were wounded during ongoing clashes with the soldiers," local councilman Ahmed Tahir told Xinhua.

This brought the death toll of protests in the country since Wednesday to three, after police's random gunfire killed Yaseen Askar, 19, and Mohammed Ali al-Alwani, a 17-year-old protester, during fierce clashes in Al-Mansoura district in Aden on Wednesday, according to medical sources.

In Sanaa, about 40 protesters were injured Thursday during clashes with pro-government backers wielding daggers and batons, said officials in the opposition coalition.

The clashes took place when more than 3,000 anti-government protesters, mostly students, gathered inside Sanaa University and marched to the south gate of the campus, where they clashed with pro-regime supporters.

Anti-riot policemen rushed to the scene in Al-Rubat street, trying to stop the clashes, and one policeman was seriously wounded, a police officer told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

A Xinhua correspondent said the armed government backers chased down the protesters as both sides threw stones against each other and police fired warning shots into the air.

Another several hundreds of anti-government protesters took to streets in provinces of Al-Bayda, Al-Hodayda, Taiz, Abyan, shouting slogans that called for the ouster of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to a security source of the Yemeni Interior Ministry.

Eyewitnesses said the angry protesters chanted slogans such as "The people want to overthrow the regime" and "After Mubarak, it's Ali's turn," referring to the president, who has been in power for over 30 years.

Saleh sacked the security director of Aden province Brigadier Abdullah Gairan Thursday due to the clashes in protests, and ordered Deputy Interior Minister Saleh al-Zawari to replace Gairan, a security source told Xinhua.

In a statement posted on the country's official news agency Saba Thursday, the Yemeni government accused foreign media of stirring up the political tension in the country.

"Foreign media's reports rely on false information and lack of balance and objectivity in covering events in Yemen, aiming at igniting a political tension that could harm the stability and security of Yemen," it said in the statement without naming any media.

"Such baseless reports also inflame the situation and encourage violence rather than promoting the reconciliation and national dialogue," it said.

The statement said the government will be committed to the dialogue with the opposition and will protect the democratic rights of the citizens in expressing their opinions and staging peaceful rallies.

Earlier Thursday, a group of clerics in Sanaa gathered at a conference, calling for forming a national unity government, which includes both the ruling party and opposition coalition, to save the country from chaos.

The clerics, including influential figures such as Sheikh Abdulmajid al-Zindany, head of Al-Eyman University and a prominent figure in the opposition Islah party, demanded the rival factions immediately form a transitional unity government to end the unrest in streets.

Saleh said earlier this month at a high-level emergency meeting that he would not seek re-election or pass power to his son. He also pledged to freeze all the controversial constitutional amendments that allow him to be president for life.

The embattled president also pledged to raise salaries of government employees and to provide 60,000 job opportunities for university graduates.

The current instability added extra troubles to Yemen, which was already undermined by a Shiite rebellion in the north, a growing separatist movement in the south and a resurgence of terrorist threats throughout the country.

Northern Shiite rebel commander Abdulmalik al-Houthi pledged in a statement posted on the Internet Tuesday to order his armed groups to support the Yemeni people against Saleh if the revolution breaks out.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Death toll in Yemen mounts as police and protestors clash

By Shona BHATTACHARYYA (video)

18/02/2011

News Wires (text)  

AFP -

A hand-grenade attack killed two anti-regime protestors and left 27 injured in the Yemeni city of Taez on Friday, while violent clashes broke out in Sanaa, witnesses said.

Anti-regime protesters in the volatile Yemen city of Taez were blasted with a hand grenade Friday leaving two dead and dozens hurt, while violent clashes also erupted in Sanaa, witnesses said.
             
The grenade attack came as hundreds of protesters took to the centre of Taez after the Friday Muslim prayers to demand the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in protests that have been raging in the city for the past week.
             
A local official told AFP that the grenade was lobbed at protesters from a speeding car that carried government registration plates.
             
The people in the "government car" have been identified, he said.
             
"They are two, but we will not identify their political affiliation," he added.
             
"The death toll of the attack in Taez has reached to two dead and 27 wounded," a medical official told AFP.
             
In the capital Sanaa, at least four anti-regime protesters were wounded when Saleh partisans attacked a demonstration, witnesses said.
             
Several journalists were severely beaten by supporters of the ruling General People's Congress (GPC) who attacked the demonstration using batons and axes, an AFP correspondent reported.
             
Thousands of demonstrators, mostly students, had gathered following the weekly Friday prayers in a main street of Sanaa.
             
"People want to overthrow the regime," they chanted.
             
The supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh numbered in hundreds, aided by security agents in plainclothes, on the sixth consecutive day of confrontations between protesters and loyalists.
             
Three people were shot dead and around 20 wounded Thursday by police when security forces clashed with anti-regime protesters in the southern city of Aden.
             
An official at Jumhuriah hospital in Aden said that three bodies were sent to the morgue, adding that 19 people were wounded, two of whom were in serious condition and undergoing surgery.
             
Police had opened fire on thousands of demonstrators who marched Thursday in Aden's Al-Mansura neighbourhood demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in office for 32 years.
             
The demonstrators, chanting, "Ali, out!", damaged shops, set fire to tyres and placed obstacles in the streets to block traffic, an AFP correspondent said.
             
Police fired tear gas and then live rounds to disperse the protesters, who responded by throwing stones.
             
Twenty people were wounded and a similar number were arrested in the same neighbourhood on Wednesday when demonstrators stormed the local police station and the central prison, according to a local official.
             
State news agency Saba reported on Thursday that Saleh had ordered an investigation "to inquire about the unfortunate riots that have occurred in some parts of" Al-Mansura.
             
The latest deaths bring to seven -- five in Aden and two in Taez -- the number of people killed in Yemen since clashes erupted on Sunday.
             
In Sanaa, protests have become increasingly violent, despite Saleh -- elected to a seven-year-term in September 2006 -- urging dialogue on forming a government of national unity.
             
"Yemenis have a legitimate right to freedom of expression and assaults against both them and journalists covering their protests are totally unacceptable," Amnesty International said in a statement from London.
             
It quoted sources in Yemen as saying that "at least 10 demonstrators in Sanaa were injured," including several in the head, after security forces in plainclothes opened fire with live bullets.
             
Besides poverty and unemployment, Saleh's government is grappling a secessionist movement in the south, rebellion in the north, and a regrouping of Al-Qaeda on its soil.
 

YEMEN Demonstrations escalate in Yemen as protesters and loyalists face off
MIDDLE EAST Protester killed in Yemen as unrest sweeps region
YEMEN Police make arrests during fresh clashes in Yemen