Six people, including a family of five, were killed in Yemen despite a relative calm after deadly clashes between supporters and foes of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, medics and witnesses said on Tuesday.
The family of five were killed overnight when a rocket that hit their house in Tunis Street, east of Sanaa’s Change Square, where protesters demanding Saleh’s ouster have camped out for several months, the sources told AFP.
But northern Sanaa, mainly Al-Hassaba district, remained relatively calm overnight after it had seen deadly clashes over past days between tribesmen led by Saleh’s opponent Sheikh Sadeq Al-Ahmar and dissident troops on one side, and loyalist tribesmen and security forces on the other.
Scores of protesters were killed Saturday and Sunday when Saleh’s forces opened fire at demonstrators who ventured out of the zone protected by the First Armoured Division, led by dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, to areas controlled by Saleh’s forces.
Elsewhere, one protester was killed and seven others wounded when pro-Saleh elements opened fire at a demonstration late Monday in the flashpoint city of Taez, witnesses and medics said.
Protest organisers in Sanaa said two demonstrations were to march out of Change Square again on Tuesday, aiming to penetrate areas controlled by Saleh’s security forces, despite fears of a deadly response.
Eight people were killed and 27 wounded in overnight street battles on Sunday, according to medics and a tribal source.
Saleh’s forces shot dead 12 protesters on Saturday, while four demonstrators and two soldiers of Ahmar’s division were killed on Sunday, according to medics. Dozens more were wounded.
Despite mounting pressure from Western governments as well as the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Saleh has for months refused to sign a deal brokered by the GCC for him to hand over power in return for immunity from prosecution.
According to a letter from Yemen’s youth movement sent to the United Nations earlier this month, at least 861 people have been killed and 25,000 wounded since mass anti-regime protests erupted across the country.
