Report: Yemeni security forces kill 22 protesters
BNO Newswire - Monday, September 19th, 2011 at 5:26 PM
Yemeni Protesters
At least 22 people were killed and scores were injured on Sunday when troops loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened fire on protesters in the capital Sanaa, according to media reports.
Al-Jazeera said that the violence erupted after tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand an end to Saleh’s 33-year rule.
According to medical sources, hundreds of people were injured.
Mohammad al Qadhi, a Yemeni journalist, said government snipers fired on demonstrators from rooftops. “I talked to one of the protesters. He told me shots were fired on chests, legs, and other parts of the body,” he told Al-Jazeera.
Earlier on Sunday, government troops fired mortars into Al-Hasaba district in Sanaa, home to opposition tribal chief Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar. He said his fighters did not return fire after they were shelled by the Republican Guard.
Ahmar said he did not want to give Saleh any excuse not to sign a deal to transfer power. Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, Yemen’s vice-president, will reportedly sign a Gulf Arab initiative to arrange for a transfer of power in Yemen “within a week.”
Last week, Saleh said that he is “willing now to sign a Saudi-led power-transfer deal initiated in April by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC),” and directed his government to begin a power-transfer dialogue with the opposition.
The embattled president is still in Saudi Arabia receiving treatment after he was wounded along with other government officials in the rocket attack which hit the mosque of the presidential palace in Sanaa on June 3.
Protesters have been demanding the resignation of government leaders and President Saleh since January. Tensions have soared as both the government forces and the pro- protests defected army have recently deployed heavily troops in central cities, including the capital Sanaa.
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