Massacre in Sanaa + Syrian riots start [deaths]

[General Duke]

least 30 people have been killed and scores were wounded after Yemeni security forces opened fire on protesters at University square, in the capital Sanaa.

 

Security forces opened fire on Friday, in attempts to prevent protesters from marching out of the square where they were gathered, sources said. Medical sources said the death toll was likely to rise.

 

Pro-regime "thugs" also opened fire on protesters from houses close to university square, witnesses told the AFP news agency.

 

Friday's attack came as tens of thousands gathered across the country, continuing to demand that president Ali Abdullah Saleh - the country's ruler of 32 years - step down.

 

Al Jazeera correspondents in Sanaa reported that many protesters were shot in the head and neck; most of the injured were shot with live ammunition.

 

Medics at a nearby medical centre told Al Jazeera almost 200 people were injured; many were in critical condition. One medic called the attack a "massacre".

 

Anti-government demonstrations were also held in other cities including Taiz, Ibb, Hodeidah, Aden, and Amran following Muslim midday prayers on Friday.

 

Standing firm

[Som@li]

Time is ticking for another dictator...

[General Duke]

This one is loved by the powers that be.

[Mad_Mullah]

The west are the biggest Munafiqeen, as soon as something eruputs in Libya, Syria, iran etc. They jump on it, supporting the protestors but if the dictator is on their side....

[General Duke]

At least 35 people have been shot dead and hundreds wounded in Sana'a after soldiers and plain-clothed government loyalists opened fired on protesters trying to march through the Yemeni capital.

 

The death toll, which is expected to rise, is the highest seen in more than a month of violence in Yemen, with protesters demanding that President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down.

 

The protest on Friday had started peacefully. Tens of thousands filled a mile-long stretch of road by Sana'a University for a prayer ceremony mourning the loss of seven protesters killed in similar violence last weekend.

 

As the prayers came to an end, however, the sight of black smoke from a burning car caught the attention of protesters, who began surging towards it.

 

Witnesses say the first shots were fired by security forces trying to disperse the protesters and they were joined by plain-clothed men who fired on the demonstrators with Kalashnikovs from the roofs of nearby houses.

 

A nearby mosque was transformed into a chaotic makeshift hospital for injured protesters. The wounded, most of them men in their early 20s, were suffering from the effects of teargas and bullet wounds, many having been shot in the chest.

 

The dead were carried into the mosque's main prayer room and laid out in a line with miniature Qur'ans on their chests.

 

"They shot people in the back of the head as they were running away," said Mohammed al-Jamil, an Indian doctor treating the wounded. "Whoever did this wanted these people to die."

 

Children were also caught up in the violence.

 

"My brother is twelve years old, they shot him twice, once in the arm and once in the leg," shouted a young man through a crackling microphone to a roaring crowd of thousands outside the mosque. "Saleh would rather shoot us all before stepping down."

 

Until now government forces have largely used water cannons, rubber bullets and teargas to disperse anti-regime rallies, but live rounds were fired on Friday in what appears be the beginning of an increasingly violent crackdown on protesters.

 

Anti-government demonstrations were held in other cities, including Taiz, Ibb, Hodeidah, Aden and Amran, following Friday prayers at midday.

 

Yemen, the youngest and poorest country in the Arab world, has been hit by weeks of protests set in motion by uprisings in north Africa that toppled long-serving leaders in Tunisia and Egypt and spread to the Gulf states of Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

 

Saleh has maintained a firm grip on power for more than three decades and has rejected calls for him to step down, saying he will only do so when his current term of office expires in 2013.

[General Duke]

Yemeni protesters carry wounded people from the site of clashes in Sana'a after troops opened fire on marchers. Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP

[General Duke]

Syrian TV says security forces, protesters clash

(AP) – 3 hours ago

 

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state media says security forces have dispersed protesters in two towns in what would be the most serious unrest in years in one of the Mideast's most repressive states.

 

Amateur video footage posted Friday on YouTube and Twitter shows large groups of protesters in several cities throughout Syria but its authenticity could not be immediately be independently confirmed.

 

State television says some "infiltrators" in the town of Deraa caused "chaos and riots" and smashed cars and some property before they were chased off by riot police. It says a similar demonstration in the coastal town of Banyas was dispersed without incident.

 

One amateur video showed what appeared to be show Syrian government trucks spraying water on marchers. Two others purport to show several thousand men gathering in the cities of Homs and Baniyas.

 

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

 

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Plainclothes security officers forcefully dispersed about a dozen protesters calling Friday for more freedoms in Syria, human rights activists said.

 

The activists said the protest occurred in the yard of Damascus' famous Ummayad Mosque shortly after Friday prayers. At least two protesters were detained, they said.

 

The protest was the third small rally broken up in Damascus this week as authorities squelch gatherings in inspired by those sweeping the Arab world.

 

Eight Syrian human rights groups said a prosecutor had questioned and charged dozens of demonstrators with hurting the state's image.

 

The groups said the 32 activists denied the charges. They included four relatives of political prisoner Kamal Labawani, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence.

 

The activists were detained Wednesday when plainclothes security officers armed with batons dispersed a protest near the Interior Ministry demanding the release of political prisoners.

 

Government critics are routinely jailed in Syria, a predominantly Sunni country ruled by minority Alawites.

[General Duke]

More than 40 people were reported killed and at least 300 injured in Yemen after Yemeni security forces and unidentified snipers opened fire on anti-government protesters after Muslim prayers in the capital, Sana'a. President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the target of the demonstrators, responded by declaring a state of emergency. US president Barack Obama condemned the violence.