At least seven protesters were killed and dozens wounded on Tuesday as gunmen loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened fire on demonstrators in the Yemeni capital. It was the third time in four days that demonstrators had attempted to march from their base in Sanaa’s Change Square on loyalist-held areas of the capital, to be met by deadly gunfire. Leading activist Sakhr al-Wajih told a press conference that six protesters were killed and 59 wounded. Doctors at the makeshift clinic that protesters have set up in Change Square, where they have camped out for months, said dozens of the injured had sustained bullet wounds, while others were being treated for tear gas inhalation.
Demonstrators came under fire from gunmen and police as tens of thousands marched from Change Square to the loyalist-held Al-Qaa neighbourhood. Armed loyalists had erected tents in the street to block the march. The protesters came under attack after passing the tents towards Al-Qaa, a district where several government buildings are located. Witnesses said thousands of demonstrators were briefly trapped in Al-Olfi Square on Ziraa Street, coming under fire from hundreds of loyalist security forces and gunmen. A family of five were killed on Monday night when a rocket hit their home in north Sanaa.
In Yemen’s second-largest city Taez, one protester was killed and seven wounded when Saleh loyalists opened fire on a demonstration late on Monday, witnesses and medics said. Despite mounting pressure from Western governments and 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 protests first erupted in January against Saleh’s 33-year rule.
