Perilous
Times
Yemeni forces kill 18 and wound hundreds as unrest escalates
Worst violence in months sees demonstrators and defected army
faction clash with republican guard
Tom Finn in Sana'a
The Guardian, Thursday 12 May 2011
Anti-government protesters carry a wounded demonstrator to a field
hospital during clashes with Yemeni security forces in Sana'a,
Yemen. Photograph: Hani Mohammed/AP
Yemeni forces have opened fire on demonstrators in three major
cities, killing at least 18 and wounding hundreds in one of the
fiercest bouts of violence witnessed in nearly three months of
popular unrest aimed at toppling President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The clashes between a defected faction of Yemen's army and the
republican guard, have raised fears that Yemen may be reaching a
critical juncture as public fury continues to mount at the
president's refusal to step down.
Violence broke out in the capital when a throng of 2,000
protesters tore away from the main sit-in area at Sana'a
University and surged en masse towards the cabinet building in
downtown Sana'a with shouts of "God is great" and "Allah rid us of
this tyrant".
As they neared their destination they were halted by republican
guards who, after trying to disperse them with tear gas and water
cannons, began firing live rounds at the crowd.
Soldiers positioned on the balconies and roofs of nearby houses
rained bullets down on the angry mob of protesters, who responded
by hurling chunks of broken-off paving slabs.
The standoff, which lasted for around four hours, climaxed when
soldiers loyal to a defected general, Major Ali Mohsin, arrived in
pickup trucks and began returning fire at Saleh's troops.
It was the first time the two sides have clashed in the capital
since Mohsin declared his support for the opposition in late
March.
Local press reported that a lieutenant colonel, Yahya Muhammad
al-Ansi, belonging to the rebel general's first armoured division,
was killed in the clashes.
Women and children were amongst those caught up in the ensuing
mayhem. Bushra Al-Surabi, a prominent female activist, apparently
suffered from a bullet wound to the leg.
A doctor presiding over a bloodied corpse in the corner of a
nearby mosque-turned-field-hospital said he counted nine other
bodies and that hundreds of others were suffering from bullet
wounds.
In the industrial city of Taiz, another centre of popular
resistance, two teenage protesters were shot dead by snipers while
trying to scale a government building.
Protesters retaliated by torching a police building and blockading
a number of ministerial offices.
In the Red Sea port city of Hudaida, another protester was killed
when security forces opened fire on marchers trying to occupy the
city mayor's office, witnesses said.
With protests entering their consecutive third month and Saleh
backing away from a Gulf-brokered initiative which would see him
exchange power for immunity, Yemen's youthful protesters have
began tightening the bolts on their embattled president.
In the past days the country has been brought to a standstill by
nationwide strikes as well as blockades of roads and ports. A
planned march on the presidential palace is expected on Friday.
"Yemen is at a dangerous juncture," says Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen
analyst from Princeton University.
"Every attempt at mediation, including a recently flawed approach
by the GCC [Gulf Co-operation Council], has failed, as Saleh
stalls and equivocates on public pledges, hoping to somehow
survive in power."
The shootings suggest that Saleh may have given the army the green
light to fire on protesters.
"Yemeni Oil-Free blood is apparently invisible to the
International Community," said Ibrahim Mothana, a protest leader
at Change square. "When will the west condemn this?"
Analysts fear that failure to address Yemen's swelling unrest,
particularly its rising unemployment, may benefit al-Qaida in the
Arabian Peninsula– an organisation which is already capitalising
on lapsed security and an increasingly stretched army.
"The last time al-Qaeda had this much time and space in which to
operate, it put together the 2009 Christmas Day attack, which
narrowly missed bringing down an airliner over Detroit," said
Johnsen.