At least 42 people were killed and hundreds injured, tens in critical condition, when the security forces and the government supporters attacked the protesters in the square of change outside Sana’a University in Yemen’s capital on Friday.
After hundreds of thousands finished the Friday prayers in the square where tens of thousands have been conducting a sit-in demanding the departure of President Saleh for almost a month, the security forces and the pro-Saleh thugs surrounding the area shot directly and sniped the anti-government protesters from the ground and from inside and over buildings.
Some 30 people were killed immediately after the Friday prayers and the others in the clashes that continued for hours later at the university and away from the square.
Eyewitnesses said they had seen some people firing from inside their houses hails of bullets in the air and at the protesters and bullies armed with guns and batons burning materials in the streets to frighten the people.
Following the prayers, hundreds of Saleh loyalists also took to the street closing it and preventing the people and the cars from passing there and later shot dead some protesters.
In response to the attacks on them, the anti-government protesters moved toward the security forces and the bullies and clashed with them.
The battlefield stretched along the ring road, al Daery Street, forcing the stores to close down and paralyzing the normal life.
Meanwhile, the National Defense Council held a meeting chaired by President Saleh and expressed regret over the victims as it approved to form a panel to investigate the incidents.
President Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for 33 years and has announced unwelcome initiatives to resume dialogue among the political parties and to address the current situation, has been mobilizing his loyalists across the republic funding their rallies and arming bullies, who attack his foes easily and in front of the security forces.
However, he ordered the government to focus on priorities and strategies that can help ease the public pressure, as the spreading protests have affected the economic sectors largely.
In the last few weeks, the government has stepped up the crackdown on the protests with the security forces and the pro-Saleh thugs firing live ammunition and nerve gas at and attacking with sticks, knives and rocks the anti-government protesters in various cities.
As a result dozens have been killed and thousands injured mostly in the capital Sana’a, Taiz, Hodeida and Aden, as the people and the opposition have vowed to escalate the anti-Saleh protests until the regime was out.
There were also some cities falling in the hands of the anti-Saleh revolutionists.
Yemen has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world and is the Arab poorest country with a high population growth rate, an alarming scarcity of resources and widespread corruption at the public institutions.
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