Clashes between police and anti-regime demonstrators in Yemen’s southern city of Aden killed three, medics said, as more protests were expected in the capital Sana’a after yesterday’s weekly prayers. An official at Jumhuriah hospital in Aden said that three bodies were sent to the morgue, adding that 19 people were wounded, two of whom were in serious condition and undergoing surgery.
Police had opened fire on thousands of demonstrators who marched on Thursday in Aden’s Al-Mansura neighborhood demanding the ouster of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in office for 32 years.
The demonstrators damaged shops, set fire to tires and placed obstacles in the streets to block traffic, a correspondent said.
Police fired tear gas and then live rounds to disperse the protesters.
Twenty people were wounded and a similar number were arrested in the same neighbourhood on Wednesday when demonstrators stormed the local police station and the central prison, a local official said.
Hundreds of protesters also broke into shops and hotels, setting tires ablaze and blocking roads. State news agency Saba reported on Thursday that Saleh had ordered an investigation “to inquire about the unfortunate riots that have occurred in some parts of” Al-Mansura.
The latest deaths brought to five the number of people killed in Aden since Wednesday.
The capital Sana’a, meanwhile, was bracing for more demonstrations against the veteran leader after the weekly Muslim prayers yesterday.
On Thursday clashes erupted in the capital for a fifth straight day when about 2,000 demonstrators were attacked by regime backers as they left Sana’a University’s campus.
Police intervened with warning shots to separate the two sides, but later withdrew, as the protesters came under fire from Saleh supporters, a journalist in Sana’a said.
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