Two shot dead and scores hurt during huge protests

Security forces and loyalists of Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead two protesters yesterday as hundreds of thousands turned out to demand his immediate ouster, medics and witnesses said.

“Security forces shot dead a protester and wounded 30 others, eight of them by live rounds,” a medical source in Ibb, south of Sanaa, said.

At least 30 others needed treatment for tear gas inhalation, witnesses said.

In the southeastern province of Al-Baida, gunmen “belonging to the ruling party” opened fire at a sit-in, killing one protester, a witness said.

In Taez south of the capital, police and “gunmen in civilian clothes” fired live bullets and tear gas, wounding 50 protesters and leaving at least 250 suffering from breathing problems, witnesses said.

They said hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the flashpoint city to pressure Saleh to step down immediately despite a US-backed Gulf plan for a transition of power.

The protesters, who have been demonstrating across Yemen since late January, rallied against a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) plan under which Saleh would quit in 30 days with immunity from prosecution.

“No rest, no respite for the executioner,” they shouted.

The witnesses said security forces erected concrete barriers to block roads leading to the Taez governor’s office and also deployed armoured vehicles.

In Sanaa, where demonstrators calling for Saleh’s ouster have staged a sit-in at a square since February, thousands of teachers marched on the education ministry.

“No studying, no teaching until the downfall of the President,” they chanted.

Witnesses said thousands of people also protested in Mukalla in the southeast and in the Red Sea city of Al-Hudaydah. No clashes were reported in Sanaa or the other two cities.