SANA'A // Security forces and plainclothed gunmen opened fire on crowds of Yemenis marching through a southern city yesterday, killing at least six and wounding more than 30, in an intensifying crackdown against the uprising against the 32-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Witnesses described troops and gunmen, some on nearby rooftops, firing wildly on thousands of protesters who marched past the governor's headquarters in Taiz in the second straight day of violence in the southern city. Some were trampled and injured as the crowds tried to flee, witnesses said.
The bloodshed in Taiz further stoked the nearly two-month-old uprising against Saleh. The opposition has been holding continual protest camps in main squares of the capital Sanna and other cities around the country, and on Monday new demonstrations in solidarity with the Taiz protesters erupted in several places - including the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, where security forces also opened fire on marchers.
Violence has grown amid frustration over the failure of behind-the-scenes efforts to find a formula to remove Saleh while maintaining a stable transition in this fragmented nation, where poverty and tribal divisions are widespread. Saleh's crackdown has been so harsh - killing at lest 97 since protests began February 11 - it propelled many of his key allies to the opposition, but still he has refused to step down immediately.
Yemen's opposition parties over the weekend put out their most detailed outline yet for a handover of power, proposing that Saleh step down to be replaced by his vice president, who would oversee a dialogue on reforming the constitution and planning elections. But the broad opposition is not unified on the idea, with some activists organizing the protests opposed to the vice president stepping in.
The violence in the mountain city of Taiz began when thousands of protesters down its main street toward Freedom Square, where demonstrators have been camped out, surrounded by security forces.
As the march passed the governor's headquarters, troops stationed there blocked the procession, and clashes broke out, with some protesters throwing stones, witnesses said.
Troops on nearby rooftops opened fire with live ammunition on the crowd and the marchers then turned to besiege the governor's headquarters, said Bushra al-Maqtara, an opposition activist in Taiz, and other witnesses.
"It was heavy gunfire from all directions. Some were firing from the rooftop of the governor's building," said one man in the crowd, Omar al-Saqqaf. He said he saw military police load the bodies of two slain protesters into a car and then speed away.
At least six protesters were killed and more than 30 wounded, some with gunshots to the head and chest, said Zakariya Abdul-Qader, a doctor at a clinic set up by protesters in Freedom Square. Other doctors at the clinic confirmed the figure.
The military has clamped down on the city of nearly half a million, about 200 kilometre south of the capital, Sana'a. For a second day, tanks and armored vehicles blocked entrances to the city to prevent outsiders from joining the protests. They also surrounded Freedom Square, bottling up the thousands in the protest camp there and arresting anyone who tries to exit.
Saleh's top security official in Taiz, Abdullah Qiran, to oversee security in Taiz, is accused by demonstrators of orchestrating some of the most brutal crackdowns against demonstrators, particularly in the southern port town of Aden, where he was previously stationed until his transfer several weeks ago. On Sunday, police attacked a march by thousands of women in Taiz, sparking a battle with a separate group of male protesters.
Marches in solidarity with the Taiz protesters erupted in the cities of Mukalla, in the east, and Hodeida, on Yemen's western Red Sea coast. In Hodeida, protesters tried to march on a presidential palace in the city but were blocked by security forces, who opened fire with tear gas and live ammunition, said activist Abdel-Hafiz al-Abbasi.
He said three people were wounded.
Mr Saleh has offered to resign by the year's end and says leaving without a negotiated transition, would lead to chaos. The president's spokesman, Ahmed al-Sufi, said on Sunday that the president is only "ready to discuss the peaceful handover of power according to the constitution." But the opposition has pressed for his immediate departure.
The 65-year-old leader is a key ally for the United States, which has provided his government with millions in counterterrorism aid to fight the al Qa'eda branch that has taken root in Yemen and has plotted attacks on American soil.
The reliance on Mr Saleh has left Washington struggling with how to deal with the uprising. US officials have stopped short of calling on the president to step down immediately
