Saturday, March 12, 2011

Yemen police kill protesters in crackdown on dissent


Four dead and hundreds wounded in Sana'a and Aden as William Hague expresses concern over ongoing violence

Alan Evans and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 March 2011

"Yemeni security forces have killed four people and wounded hundreds more in the second day of a harsh crackdown on anti-government protests, witnesses said. One of the dead was a 15-year-old student.

The assault with gunfire and tear gas was the toughest yet by the government in a month of protests aimed at unseating the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years....

The violence began with a pre-dawn raid on a central square in the capital, Sana'a, where thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been camped out.

Eyewitnesses said security troops surrounded the square with police cars and armoured personnel carriers shortly after midnight and began calling on protesters through loudspeakers to go home. At 5am, security forces attacked, firing bullets and tear gas....

Saturday's raid on the Sana'a square came after Yemen's largest demonstrations in a month the day before were met by police gunfire that injured at least six protesters....."

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