Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Street fighting spreads in Sanaa as protesters seek to unseat Saleh



By Patrick Cockburn

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

"Street battles between opponents and supporters of the Yemeni president raged in the capital Sanaa yesterday, as fighting spread amid fears the escalating civil conflict could turn the country into another Somalia.

The last three days of fighting are the worst in the eight-month-long confrontation between President Ali Abdullah Saleh and those trying to end his 33-year-rule of Yemen, which was the poorest Arab state even before the present crisis. An estimated 66 people have been killed as government units fire at protesters with heavy calibre machine guns and mortars and pro-opposition soldiers fire back.

The government, whose authority has always been weak, is losing control of outlying parts of the country, while power is divided in the capital.....

Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Co-operation Council and the US are meant to be mediating, but Washington has not demanded that President Saleh step down. Instead the US embassy has called for equal restraint by protesters, who are being shot at, and government soldiers and plain-clothes men who are doing the shooting...."

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