A Yemeni protester died of gunshot wounds yesterday after being hit when police opened fire overnight on anti-regime demonstrators in Sana’a, a medical official said.
The protester was wounded when police fired live bullets and tear gas to disperse a students’ demonstration outside Sana’a University late on Tuesday. He later died of his wounds in hospital.
Three other demonstrators were also wounded by gunfire, while some 60 others were lightly hurt due to being beaten by police batons or inhaling tear gas, the official said.
Meanwhile, a security official said that 12 policemen were injured by rocks hurled by demonstrators.
Police had intervened to prevent protesters from erecting tents in a street close to the University Square, where demonstrators have been camping since Feb. 21 in a protest demanding the departure of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The police action was condemned yesterday by the Common Forum, an alliance of parliamentary opposition groups.
“Even the medical teams coming to rescue the wounded were not spared the attacks,” Common Forum spokesman Mohammed Qahtan said in a statement.
‘ACCOUNTABLE’
The alliance said it held “Saleh personally accountable for the crime committed by the central security and the republican guard against the students.”
Demonstrations also continued elsewhere in the country. In the southern port city of Aden, a crowd of women joined a demonstration after a young protester was shot in the head and critically wounded during a rally there the previous day.
Tens of thousands took to the streets in Ibb Province, calling on the government to bring to justice those responsible for a deadly attack there on Sunday.
Opposition activists blamed “government thugs” who descended on protesters camped out on a main square. One person was killed in that violence and 53 people were hurt.
Even before Yemen was hit by the wave of protests, it was growing increasingly chaotic with a resurgent al-Qaeda, a separatist movement in the south and a Shiite rebellion occasionally flaring in the north.
Seeking to head off the protests, Saleh called for national dialogue after meetings on Monday with the country’s top political and security chiefs.
CONFERENCE
The state-run news agency said the conference would be held today and would include thousands of representatives from across Yemen’s political spectrum.
However, opposition leader Yassin Said Numan said there would be no dialogue unless Saleh agreed to step down by year’s end.
Saleh’s recent pledge not to run for re-election in 2013 has failed to quell the protests.
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