Affrontement à Taez : deux morts – 8 avril 2011

Dozens of Yemen protesters wounded in clashes-witnesses

af.reuters.com

Fri Apr 8, 2011

SANAA, April 8 (Reuters) – Dozens of protesters seeking the ouster of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh were wounded in clashes with security forces in the southern city of Taiz, witnesses said. Further details were not immediately available.

Saleh said on Friday he rejected « belligerent intervention », apparently dismissing any aspect of a Gulf Arab mediation offer that aimed to end his 32-year rule.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Nick Macfie)

Security forces fire on Yemen protesters

aljazeera.net

08 Apr 2011

At least two people have been confirmed dead and hundreds more injured after Yemeni security forces fired at protesters in the southern flash-point city of Taiz.

About 30 people are reportedly in critical condition.

Hospital sources said more than 100 people were hurt by live bullets while another 1,000 were suffering from tear gas inhalation during Friday’s protests.

Witnesses reported gunshots near the site of an anti-government sit-in in Taiz.

The protesters had been carrying the bodies of five people killed earlier in the week to their gravesites when they ran into security forces.

The fresh clashes on Friday between anti-government protesters and the police came as Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, rejected a new deal for him to leave after 32 years in power.

Some 21 people have died in clashes this week in Taiz and the Red Sea port of Hudaida.

Rival demonstrations

In the port city of Aden, once the capital of an independent south, thousands of anti-government protesters gathered peacefully and in Hudaida, some 15,000 gathered to mourn protester deaths and demand Saleh step down.

And in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, tens of thousands of people assembled for rival demonstrations – with some demanding Saleh’s dismissal and others showing their support. Police and army units were deployed to prevent any friction between the two sides.

Al Jazeera’s special correspondent in Sanaa, who is not being named for security reasons, said the pro-Saleh demonstrations in front of the presidential palace on Friday were very similar to those seen in recent weeks.

« It is very difficult for Al Jazeera to go anywhere near those protests. We have to rely on what we are seeing on Yemen state television … we can see the mass crowds turning out week after week, » the correspondent said.

« But according to some people in Change Square, where the rival protests are, those people are not there because they genuinely support Saleh but because they are either government forces dressed in civilian clothes or are being paid by the ruling party. »

Our correspondent said such accusations have been going around for weeks, with pro-democracy protesters saying that the more Saleh loses control, the more he is seen firing on anti-government protesters and also trying to ensure there are large crowds at his rallies. Read more…