Yemenis flooded the streets of Sana’a and Taiz on Friday in rival demonstrations for and against Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who gave a guarded welcome to a Gulf Arab plan for a three-month transition of power.
He told supporters in Sana’a any arrangements had to be “within the framework of the Yemen Constitution” — language which could mask objections to the plan — and also vowed to “confront challenge with challenge,” but without bloodshed.
“Guns can be used today, but you cannot use them to rule tomorrow. We reject war,” Saleh said.
Ten soldiers were killed in three attacks by tribesmen and al-Qaeda militants in several provinces, officials said. In the southern city of Taiz, riot police fired in the air to keep vast, unruly crowds of pro and anti-Saleh demonstrators apart, but there were no serious injuries, witnesses said.
A sea of anti-Saleh protesters, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands, inundated the streets of Taiz, Yemen’s third city and an epicenter of opposition to the 69-year-old president.
However, in Yemen’s northwestern city of Hajja, a 12-year-old boy was shot dead when security forces opened fire to prevent a crowd of anti-government protesters entering the city, witnesses told reporters by telephone.
Tens of thousands of Saleh loyalists turned out in Sana’a, the capital, for what they called a “Friday of Reconciliation,” waving Yemeni flags and pictures of the president.
Their numbers were matched by protesters demanding Saleh’s immediate departure, spilling out of their usual protest area around Sana’a University to mark a “Last Chance Friday” in nearby Siteen street, where there was a heavy security presence.
That raised concern that Saleh’s security forces and republican guards might clash with troops loyal to renegade general Ali Mohsen, protecting the protesters in Sana’a.
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