40 killed as snipers fire on protesters in Yemen
Source: Agencies |
March 19, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
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YEMENI government snipers firing from rooftops and houses shot at tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators in the capital Sanaa yesterday, killing at least 40 people and injuring hundreds in the crowd demanding the ouster of the president.
Dozens of enraged protesters stormed several buildings that were the source of the gunfire, detaining 10 people, including paid thugs, who they said would be handed over to judicial authorities.
Demonstrators have camped out in squares across Yemen for over a month to demand that President Ali Abdullah Saleh who has ruled Yemen for 30 years leave office. Security forces and pro-government thugs have used live fire, rubber bullets, tear gas, sticks, knives and rocks to suppress them. The protesters say they won't go until Saleh does.
"They want to scare and terrorize us. They want to drag us into a cycle of violence - to make the revolution meaningless," said Jamal Anaam, a 40-year-old activist camping out in the square that the protesters call "Taghyir Square" - Arabic for Change.
"They want to repeat the Libyan experiment, but we refuse to be dragged into violence no matter what the price," he said.
Before the shooting yesterday in Sanaa, a military helicopter flew low over the square as protesters arrived from prayers. Gunfire soon erupted from rooftops and houses above the demonstrators, where eyewitnesses said beige-clad elite forces and plainclothes security officials took aim.
Other police used burning tires and gasoline to make a wall of fire that blocked demonstrators from fleeing down a main road leading to sensitive locations, including the president's residence.
Panic and chaos swept the square, where dozens of dead and wounded sprawled on the ground. Witnesses said the snipers aimed at heads, chests and necks. Protesters carried their friends, scarves pressed over bleeding wounds.
"It is a massacre," said Mohammad al-Sabri, an opposition spokesman. "This is part of a criminal plan to kill off the protesters, and the president and his relatives are responsible for the bloodshed in Yemen today."
Doctors at the makeshift field hospital near the protest camp at Sanaa University confirmed at least 40 dead, three of them children.
Medical officials and eyewitnesses say hundreds were wounded in yesterday's violence, which marks a dramatic escalation of the crisis that has engulfed Yemen.
Dozens of enraged protesters stormed several buildings that were the source of the gunfire, detaining 10 people, including paid thugs, who they said would be handed over to judicial authorities.
Demonstrators have camped out in squares across Yemen for over a month to demand that President Ali Abdullah Saleh who has ruled Yemen for 30 years leave office. Security forces and pro-government thugs have used live fire, rubber bullets, tear gas, sticks, knives and rocks to suppress them. The protesters say they won't go until Saleh does.
"They want to scare and terrorize us. They want to drag us into a cycle of violence - to make the revolution meaningless," said Jamal Anaam, a 40-year-old activist camping out in the square that the protesters call "Taghyir Square" - Arabic for Change.
"They want to repeat the Libyan experiment, but we refuse to be dragged into violence no matter what the price," he said.
Before the shooting yesterday in Sanaa, a military helicopter flew low over the square as protesters arrived from prayers. Gunfire soon erupted from rooftops and houses above the demonstrators, where eyewitnesses said beige-clad elite forces and plainclothes security officials took aim.
Other police used burning tires and gasoline to make a wall of fire that blocked demonstrators from fleeing down a main road leading to sensitive locations, including the president's residence.
Panic and chaos swept the square, where dozens of dead and wounded sprawled on the ground. Witnesses said the snipers aimed at heads, chests and necks. Protesters carried their friends, scarves pressed over bleeding wounds.
"It is a massacre," said Mohammad al-Sabri, an opposition spokesman. "This is part of a criminal plan to kill off the protesters, and the president and his relatives are responsible for the bloodshed in Yemen today."
Doctors at the makeshift field hospital near the protest camp at Sanaa University confirmed at least 40 dead, three of them children.
Medical officials and eyewitnesses say hundreds were wounded in yesterday's violence, which marks a dramatic escalation of the crisis that has engulfed Yemen.
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