Yemen police fire on protesters - Middle East. Scores of anti-government protesters have been injured in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, after witnesses said security forces fired live rounds and tear gas at demonstrators. Visiting a clinic set up for the wounded, doctors told Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra they had tre ated 14 people for gunshot wounds and others suffering from the effects of tear gas. But General Yahya Saleh, the head of Yemen's security forces, denied that live ammunition had been used against protesters. "We are using tear gas canisters we imported from countries that promote human rights. These are not not homemade weapons," Saleh said in an interview with Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra. "You can go and film our water water cannon trucks. Elsewhere, two protesters were reported shot dead as police broke up demonstrations in the southern province of Aden.
Anti-government protesters have been camped out for days at Tagheer Square demanding Saleh step down. Yemen police storm protest site - Middle East. At least two people have been killed and more than 300 injured after Yemen security forces stormed a protest site where thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators have been camped out for weeks, demanding the ouster of the country's leader.
In a pre-dawn raid on Saturday, police are said to have used tear gas and hot water mixed with gas to disperse the demonstrators. Meanwhile, a teenage boy was killed in separate clashes between security forces and protesters in the city of Mukala. Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from the capital Sanaa, said that the situation remains tense, and that the opposition is accusing the government of committing crimes against the protesters.
"They also say the raid will speed up the revolution, and that president Ali Abdullah Saleh must go now before [he] faces the wrath of the people," he said. Thousands of Saleh loyalists also crammed the capital's Tahrir Square, carrying pictures of the veteran leader. Soldiers killed Saleh's offer rebuffed. Yemen leader blames protests on US - Middle East. Yemen's president has hit out at Israel and the US, accusing them of destabilising his country and the Arab world as protesters demanding his ouster press ahead with demonstrations. Ali Abdullah Saleh's comments on Tuesday marked his harshest public criticism yet of the US, a key ally with which his government is battling al-Qaeda pockets in the Arabian pensinsula.
He said "there's an operations room in Tel Aviv with the aim of destabilising the Arab world" and that it is "run by the White House". The United States said on Tuesday Saleh "knows better" than to charge that a foreign plot was behind unrest in his country, saying he should respond to his people's aspirations. "The protests in Yemen are not the product of external conspiracies. President Saleh knows better. His people deserve a better response," PJ Crowley, the US state department spokesman, said in a message on Twitter. 'Significant development' Separatists clash Al Jazeera is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Yemen MPs resign over violence - Middle East. Seven members of Yemen's parliament have resigned from President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ruling party to protest against what they described as government violence against demonstrators, the parliamentarians have said. "The people must have the right to demonstrate peacefully," Abdulaziz Jubari, a leading parliamentarian who has resigned, told Reuters news agency on Wednesday. Jubari said the parliamentarians had sent a 10-point letter to Saleh with demands for immediate reform, including restructuring the army to make it more representative of Yemen's complex society and to aid a transition to democracy.
Among those who resigned is tribal leader Abdo Bisher from the Sanaa region and two figures from southern Yemen. Saleh still has around 240 members out of the 301-strong parliament, which the opposition says was a result of unfair elections and the use of state machinery to elect Saleh's allies. Early election urged Widening protest. Yemen protests enter fifth day - Middle East. Thousands of people have protested in Yemen for a fifth consecutive day to demand political reforms and the overthrow of the country's president.
They were met by pro-government supporters, who waded into Tuesday's protest in Sanaa with batons, sparking violent clashes in which three people were hurt, the AFP news agency said. The loyalists were joined by plainclothes police wielding electric tasers, who sent the crowd of around 3,000 protesters, mostly students and rights activists, fleeing, witnesses said. The demonstrators chanted slogans against Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, such as "Down with the president's thugs". "What we are seeing is thousands of pro-government protesters, armed with batons, attacking the pro-democracy protesters and dispersing the crowd using violence," Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reported from the scene of the protests.
A heavy police force and about 2,000 pro-government supporters had positioned themselves at the city centre. Social media. Yemenis urge leader's exit - Middle East. Thousands of Yemeni students, activists and opposition groups have held protests at Sanaa University, demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster in what appeared to be the first large-scale challenge to the strongman. Around 2,500 students, activists and opposition groups chanted slogans against the president, comparing him to Tunisia's ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, whose people were similarly enraged by economic woes and government corruption.
"Oh, Ali, join your friend Ben Ali," protesters chanted. Police fired tear gas at the demonstrators, whose grievances include proposed constitutional changes that would allow the president to rule for a lifetime. Around 30 protesters were detained, a security official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press. Since the Tunisian turmoil, Saleh has ordered income taxes slashed in half and has instructed his government to control prices. Peoples' grievances.