SANAA/ADEN (Reuters) – Supporters and opponents of Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh fired shots in the air during rival demonstrations in Sanaa yesterday, a day after five people were killed in protests against his 32-year rule.
Eight protesters were hurt and a witness said one died from a bullet wound in the neck as he was taken to hospital. But a medical source said he was admitted to intensive care and had stabilised. The Interior Ministry said no one was killed.
Saleh blamed a “foreign agenda” and a “conspiracy against Yemen, its security and stability” for the string of protests against poverty, unemployment and corruption which have gained momentum since the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
At one stage both sides fired pistols and assault rifles — the first reported use of firearms by demonstrators — in the protests outside Sanaa University.
Four other Saleh opponents were seriously wounded by gunfire, two of them seriously, and three were wounded when demonstrators threw stones at each other outside the university.
A Reuters photographer saw one man with his face covered in blood and another being carried away by protesters.
Around 1,000 anti-Saleh demonstrators chanted “Leave! Leave!” and “The people want the fall of the regime!”, echoing the slogans of Tunisian and Egyptian protesters. Between 200 and 300 Saleh supporters called for dialogue.
In the southern town of Sheikh Othman, five people including two young girls were wounded apparently by stray bullets after police shot into the air to disperse protesters, residents said.
The town’s council said earlier it resigned in protest at the use of live bullets by security forces against protesters.
“Those who want power let them come with us to the polling stations … the Yemeni people face elements of sabotage and those who are outside the system and the law,” Saleh said in a speech to representatives of civil society organisations.
In a concession to protesters, he has promised to step down when his term ends in 2013 and not to hand power to his son. Opposition parties agreed to talks, but protests have continued.
Mohsin Mohammed Bin Fareed, secretary general of the opposition party Sons of Yemen, said on Saturday dialogue with the government “has become a waste of time”.
“The solution to these problems is the departure of the regime,” he told a news conference in Aden. It was the first time an opposition party has publicly called for Saleh to go.
In the town of Karish, men calling for the “fall of the regime” blocked a main road between Taiz and the southern port city of Aden for hours, causing a long tailback of cars.
In Aden, where resentment of rule from Sanaa runs high, thousands of protesters staged a peaceful sit-in, holding banners saying: “No to oppression. No to corruption”.
Witnesses said police clashed with people trying to torch a police centre in the southern port, a day after it was first set on fire. An army vehicle was also set on fire, they said.
In Sanaa, an editor at Defence Ministry newspaper September 26 was wounded when he was beaten and stabbed by anti-government protesters, a government official told Reuters.
