Tension returns to Yemen after mass protests

Sep 4, 2011, 19:16 GMT

Cairo/Sanaa - Tension prevailed Sunday on the streets of the Yemeni capital Sanaa after hundreds of thousands of protesters staged demanded President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster, Arabic satellite channels reported.

Security forces closed off all access routes leading to the capital to prevent tension in the capital after armed civilians loyal to the veteran president took the streets, Dubai-based broadcaster Al Arabiya television said.

'The people want to march to the (presidential) palace,' demonstrators chanted.

In a move to avoid a confrontation with Saleh loyalists, the opposition decided to march in the northern part of Sanaa, which is under the control of an army division led by a general who has defected to the opposition.

According to Al Arabiya, a small group of demonstrators clashed with Saleh loyalists after they decided to leave the northern part of the capital and head to an area close to government departments.

Four protesters were wounded, including two by gunfire, when police opened fire with live bullets and tear gas, organizers said. Four other young protesters were abducted in Sanaa.

Since Saturday, Sanaa has witnessed a massive deployment of troops, with no electricity and most petrol stations closed, in a move by Saleh's loyalists to paralyse the capital to prevent the mass demonstration by opposition forces.

The opposition has called for stepped up protests against Saleh's 33-year regime after news report said that the president, who is currently in Saudi Arabia undergoing treatment for wounds he sustained during an attack in June, is due to come back to Yemen in the coming weeks.

Yemen has been gripped by protests since late January calling for Saleh's ouster.

Similar rallies took place Sunday in Taiz, Yemen's second largest city and a flashpoint of anti-Saleh protests, as well as in the provinces of Ibb, Dhamar and Aden.

'The political process has reached an impasse,' said Huria Mashhur, spokeswoman of the opposition National Council, an anti-Saleh opposition group.

She said the protests should be kept up 'until the fall of the regime.'

'We are taking part in this anti-Saleh rally to answer the call of the National Council in its peaceful escalatory step to topple the regime and get our efforts well organized under one umberella,' said Sam Radman, 31, from Sana'a.

Earlier, three Yemeni soldiers were killed in a suicide car bombing near the southern city of Aden, broadcaster Al Jazeera reported.

The bomber targeted a checkpoint late Saturday on a road between Aden and the southern province of Abyan, the Doha-based television station quoted a Yemeni official as saying.

Al Jazeera reported progress by Yemeni government forces to regain control of Zinjibar, the capital city of Abyan, which is said to be under the control of Muslim militants.

Around 12 bodies of Islamist insurgents killed in fighting with troops were taken to a hospital near Zinjibar, according to the report.

The state-run news agency Saba reported Thursday that around 300 al-Qaeda militants have been killed in Abyan since May when the province was said to have come under the control of al-Qaeda sympathizers.