"Police attack Yemeni crowds seeking reform; Bahrain seeks to quash rally by Shi’ites" by Ahmed Al-Haj, Associated Press / February 14, 2011
SANA, Yemen — Yemeni police armed with sticks and daggers beat back thousands of protesters marching yesterday through the capital in a third straight day of demonstrations calling for political reforms and the resignation of the country’s US-allied president.
The protests have mushroomed since crowds gathered Friday to celebrate the ouster of Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, after an 18-day revolt fueled by similar grievances.
Yemen is one of several countries in the Middle East feeling the aftershocks of proreform uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. A similar demonstration was held over the weekend in Algiers, and opposition groups are also pushing for change in Bahrain and Jordan.
Police used truncheons to stop the Yemeni protesters, many of them university students, from reaching the central Hada Square in Sana, the capital. Witnesses said plainclothes police officers wielding daggers and sticks also joined security forces in driving the protesters back.
The Ministry of Interior called on people not to heed “suspicious calls for chaos’’ and to avoid rallies that obstruct daily life.
Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, postponed a trip to Washington scheduled for next month because of the events, the state news agency reported.
Much is at stake in Yemen — a deeply troubled nation strategically located at the mouth of the Red Sea and next door to the world’s largest oil reserves. Saleh’s weak government is already under pressure from a southern separatist movement and disaffected tribesmen around the country.
The United States, however, is most worried about an Al Qaeda offshoot that has taken root in Yemen’s mountains in the past few years....
Yeah, "Al-CIA-Duh" always shows up wherever there is oil, energy resources, or supply routes.
Saleh — in power for three decades — is quietly cooperating with the United States in efforts to battle the Al Qaeda franchise, but his government exercises limited control in the tribal areas beyond the capital. The United States is sending him military aid and training.
The country’s security forces, however, are already stretched thin on two other fronts: Since 2004, they have struggled to contain a serious rebellion in the north by members of the Zaidi sect of Shia Islam who complain of neglect and discrimination. At the same time, police and army forces are clashing with a secessionist movement in southern Yemen, which was a separate country until 1990.
Now, the protests calling for the president’s ouster over corruption allegations and other complaints are adding another serious challenge to the list.
Opposition parties set several conditions for joining talks with the government, including a definitive timetable for “constitutional, legal, and economic reforms.’’ The parties also demanded that Saleh remove his sons and other relatives from army, security, and government posts.
Saleh has tried to defuse the unrest by promising not to run again when his term ends in 2013 and guaranteeing that he will not seek to pass power on to his son....
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"Egypt effect felt across Mideast; Revolt inspires range of protests unique by nation" by Brian Murphy, Associated Press / February 15, 2011
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The possible heirs of Egypt’s uprising took to the streets yesterday in several parts of the Mideast: Iran’s beleaguered opposition stormed back to central Tehran. Demonstrators demanded more freedom in Bahrain. And protesters in Yemen pressed for the ouster of their ruler.
The protests — all with important implications for Washington — offer an important lesson about how groups across the Middle East are absorbing the message from Cairo and tailoring it to their own aspirations.
The heady themes of democracy, justice, and empowerment remain intact as the protest wave works it way through the Arab world and beyond. However, the objectives change. The Egypt effect, it seems, is elastic.
“This isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing,’’ said Mustafa Alani, a regional analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. “Each place will interpret the fallout from Egypt in their own way and in their own context.’’
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Yemen’s militant networks offer safe haven for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has launched several attacks against the United States.
The Yemen protests, which entered their fourth day yesterday, are about speeding the ouster of the US-allied president....
More than 1,000 people, including lawyers in their black courtroom robes, joined the protests in the Yemeni capital of Sana — a day after police attacked antigovernment marchers with sticks and daggers....
Oh, LAWYERS JOINED IN, huh?
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"Government foes stage fifth day of protests in Yemen; Demonstrators clash with police in capital; 3 hurt" by Ahmed Al-Haj, Associated Press / February 16, 2011
SANAA, Yemen — Thousands of people marching for the ouster of Yemen’s US-allied president clashed yesterday with police and government supporters, and at least three demonstrators were injured in a fifth straight day of Egypt-inspired protests.
Police tried to disperse the demonstrators using tear gas, batons, and stun guns, but about 3,000 protesters defiantly continued their march from Sanaa University toward the city center, chanting slogans against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, including “Down with the president’s thugs!’’
The procession gained momentum with hundreds of students and rights activists joining along the way.
The unrest comes as ties between the United States and Saleh have been growing recently over rising alarm in Washington about the activities of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula....
And the OVERTHROW of all their puppet rulers in the region.
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"Two protesters are killed in clashes with police in Yemen; Social media help spread the call for president’s ouster" by Ahmed al-Haj, Associated Press / February 17, 2011
SANAA, Yemen — Police opened fire on protesters during clashes in a southern Yemeni port yesterday, killing two people, in the first known deaths in six days of demonstrations across the country’s biggest cities, demanding the ouster of the president, a key US ally in battling Al Qaeda.
Around 2,000 police flooded the streets of the capital, Sanaa, trying to halt protests. Firing in the air, police locked the gates of Sanaa University with chains to prevent thousands of protesting students inside from marching out to join crowds demonstrating elsewhere in the city, witnesses said.
A call spread via Facebook and Twitter, urging Yemenis to join a series of “One Million People’’ rallies on a “Friday of Rage’’ in all Yemeni cities, demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for 32 years.
“We will remain in the streets until the regime’s departure,’’ according to a statement posted on Facebook. Copies signed by a group called the Feb. 24 Movement were distributed among youth via e-mail. The group is taking that name because organizers hope to have their biggest protest on that day next week.
Taking inspiration from the toppling of autocratic leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, the protesters are demanding political reforms and Saleh’s resignation, complaining of poverty, unemployment, and corruption in the Arab world’s most impoverished nation.
Saleh has tried to defuse protesters’ anger amid the unprecedented street demonstrations by saying that he will not run for another term in 2013, and that he will not seek to set up his son, Ahmed, to succeed him in the conflict-ridden nation.
Protesters still chanted slogans against the president’s son yesterday.
Saleh has become a key US partner in battling Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist network’s offshoot in Yemen. The group’s several hundred fighters have battled Saleh’s US-backed forces and have been linked to attacks beyond Yemen’s borders, including the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner in December 2009. The US military plans a $75 million training program with Yemen’s counterterrorism unit to expand its size and capabilities in the nation’s mountainous terrain.
It is a difficult balancing act for Saleh, who has been criticized as being too close to the United States.
Yemeni state TV reported that Saleh has been holding meetings since Sunday with heads of tribes to prevent them from joining the antigovernment protests. He met yesterday with the Supreme Defense Council to discuss developments in the country.
Government supporters massed outside Sanaa University during yesterday’s protests, waving pictures of Saleh. Some threw stones at the protesters inside, as police tried to keep them away from the university gates. Four people were hurt in scuffles, witnesses said.
Demonstrations by thousands shouting, “Down with Ali Abdullah Saleh,’’ also took place in Taiz, Yemen’s second-largest city, and the southern port of Aden.
Riot police in Aden fired live ammunition, rubber bullets, and tear gas in fierce clashes with thousands of demonstrators. Two protesters, including a 23-year-old shot in the head, were killed, a security officer said.
Twenty others were wounded, at least one seriously, according to a medical official, who like the security officer spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The protesters, who included students and workers, set tires ablaze in Aden’s Mansoura district, witnesses said. Heavy gunfire rattled residents. Protests also erupted in Aden’s most populated district, Sheikh Othman, and another section of the city.
As some protesters marched toward the city center, armored vehicles blocked entry points to Crater, Aden’s ancient historic port district built in the crater of an extinct volcano on a peninsula off the mainland.
In central Taiz, about 270 miles south of Sanaa, protesters have been camping in Safir Square, saying they will not leave until Saleh steps down. As in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, protesters have organized a makeshift camp in the city center, with medical teams, cleaning crews, and security to protect them from outside attacks, said Ghazi al-Samie, a lawyer and activist.
Meanwhile, yesterday, suspected Al Qaeda gunmen assassinated the deputy head of political security in the town of al-Shiher in eastern Hadramawt Province, a security official said.
Related: Yemen Yakety Yak
All coming from the toilet mouth of the agenda-pushing AmeriKan media.
In the town of Lawder in the southern province of Abyan, a security convoy was attacked by two men on motorcycles, leaving one soldier killed and three others injured, another security official said.
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Notice the U.S. criticism is muted in this case?
"Yemen protesters press on; Thousands ignore appeals to stay calm" by Ahmed al-Haj, Associated Press / February 18, 2011
SANAA, Yemen — Thousands of protesters defied appeals for calm from the military and the country’s most influential Islamic cleric and marched in cities across Yemen yesterday, pressing on with their campaign to oust the US-allied president.
In the capital Sanaa, protesters fought off attacks by police and government supporters swinging batons and daggers. Municipal vehicles ferried sticks and stones to the pro-government side, witnesses said.
In the port city of Aden, protesters burned tires and government vehicles the day after security forces killed two demonstrators there, witnesses said.
For seven straight days, protests have hit the capital, Sanaa, and other cities in the Arab world’s poorest country, a mountainous territory wracked by tribal conflicts, armed rebellion, and other serious woes.
Inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, Yemenis have poured into the streets to demand the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh after 32 years in power — three years more than Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. Their main grievances are poverty and government corruption.
Saleh’s promises not to run for reelection in 2013 or to set up his son as his heir have failed to quiet the antigovernment storm sweeping Yemen and other nations in the region. Similar protests also swept into Libya and Bahrain this week.
The Yemeni president is an important US ally in fighting Al Qaeda. The terror group’s Yemen-based offshoot has been linked to attacks beyond Yemen’s borders, including the failed attempt in December 2009 to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.
Yesterday’s protests in the capital began with small gatherings of students marching toward the downtown area. Others joined them as clashes broke out with police and government supporters. The number of protesters reached about 6,000.
Witnesses said police fired shots into the air to disperse the protesters. A dozen protesters and an unknown number of police officers were injured.
Security officials said police arrested about 50 protesters.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said 10 protesters were injured in clashes with police, who also tried to prevent journalists from working.
In Aden’s Mansoura district, protesters burned tires and at least four government vehicles, one day after security force killed two demonstrators there in an attempt to quell the unrest.
Protester Adib Salam said police shot rubber bullets and live rounds at protesters and attacked them with batons and stun guns.
He said many injured were lying in the streets because cars and ambulances could not move freely in the city....
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"Police kill 4 during protests on Yemen’s ‘Friday of Rage’" by Ahmed Al-Haj, Associated Press / February 19, 2011
SANAA, Yemen — Antigovernment demonstrators clashed with supporters of Yemen’s longtime ruler and riot police, who fired guns and tear gas to disperse the crowd on what organizers called a nationwide “Friday of Rage.’’ Four people were killed by police in the port of Aden, and 48 were wounded in the southern city of Taiz when someone threw what appeared to be a hand grenade into a crowd, witnesses said.
It was the ninth straight day of protests in Yemen inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Demonstrators are calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh — a key US ally in fighting Al Qaeda terrorists — who has ruled the country for 32 years.
President Obama condemned the reported violence in response to protests in Yemen, as well as in Bahrain and Libya, and he urged those governments to respect the rights of peacefully demonstrating citizens. He also expressed condolences to the families of those killed.
The US Embassy in Sanaa said it has seen “a disturbing rise in the number and violence of attacks against Yemeni citizens’’ at peaceful protests. It added that diplomats also saw reports of Yemen government officials “present during these attacks,’’ which it called “contrary to the commitments that President Saleh has made to protect the right of Yemeni citizens to gather peacefully to express their views.’’
Saleh is facing a restless population, with threats from Al Qaeda militants who want to oust him, a southern secessionist movement, and a sporadic armed rebellion in the north.
Yeah, they ALWAYS SEEM TO SHOW UP HERE in AmeriKa when that is the case!
To try to quell the new outbursts of dissent, Saleh pledged to meet some of the protesters’ demands and has reached out to tribal chiefs, who are a major base of support for him. But a key chief from Saleh’s own tribe was critical of his policies and threatened to join the protesters — an apparent attempt to pressure the embattled leader of the world’s poorest Arab country.
For now, most of the protesters are students, educated professionals, and activists who used Facebook and Twitter in summoning people to the streets for the “Friday of Rage’’ following noon prayers. Tens of thousands responded in the capital of Sanaa, the southern port of Aden, and the political hotbed of Taiz. Some websites also referred to the day as “Friday of the Beginning.’’
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Related:
"In Yemen, antigovernment protesters clashed with government defenders in a hail of bottles, shoes, and rocks."
"1 killed as Yemeni police fire on marchers; Algeria quashes rally; China tracks call for protest" by Ahmed al-Haj, Associated Press / February 20, 2011
SANA, Yemen — Yemeni riot police in the capital opened fire on thousands marching in the 10th day of unrest rocking the country, killing one and injuring five others yesterday. The country’s leader blamed the unrest on “a foreign plot.’’
I thought that at first, but not now.
Yes, the CIA and the globe-kickers they serve will try to take advantage of the situation; however, it is REGULAR PEOPLE who are out PROTESTING!
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In a meeting with civic leaders, Saleh said Yemenis have the right to express themselves peacefully and that the perpetrators of the unrest were trying to seize power by fomenting instability....
Meanwhile, residents of Aden, where riots have resulted in at least four deaths, said troops in armored vehicles had deployed in the main streets and at key buildings such as the governor’s office. Many police had withdrawn from the streets, apparently to avoid confrontation with protesters.
Vice President Abd Rabou Mansour met officials in Aden and decided to seal off the city until 6 a.m. today to prevent people outside Aden from joining protests, said a security official....
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"Yemen’s embattled president yesterday sought a way out of the political crisis gripping his impoverished Arab nation, offering to oversee a dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition to defuse the standoff with protesters demanding his ouster.
The offer by the US-backed Ali Abdullah Saleh -- which opposition groups swiftly rejected -- came as protests calling for his ouster continued in at least four cities around the county for the 11th straight day.
A 17-year-old demonstrator was killed yesterday evening in the port city of Aden when the army opened fire to disperse a march there, bringing the death toll to nine since the protests began. About 3,000 university students marched in Sana, the Yemeni capital. Demonstrations were also held in the town of Taiz and the province of al-Hadida....
Yemen is strategically located at the mouth of the Red Sea and next door to the world's largest oil reserves. The United States is most worried about an Al Qaeda offshoot that has taken root in Yemen's mountains....
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"Yemen president refuses to step down; Dissenters in areas of unrest keep up pressure" by Ahmed Al-Haj, Associated Press / February 22, 2011
SANA, Yemen —Protests seeking President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s ouster did not let up. Tens of thousands rallied in four cities, including the capital of Sana. Demonstrators said they would not leave fledgling encampments in central squares until he has left office....
At least 11 people have been killed since antigovernment protests erupted this month, including a youth shot dead yesterday, medical officials said. In an attempt to defuse anger over the violence, Saleh told a news conference that he has ordered troops not to fire at antigovernment protesters, except in self-defense.
The demonstrations in Yemen, the poorest Arab nation, are part of a wave of unrest that has swept across the Arab world in recent weeks and toppled autocratic leaders in Tunisia and Egypt.
Saleh’s government was already weak before the protests, facing a southern separatist movement and disaffected tribesmen around the country. Saleh is quietly cooperating with the US in efforts to battle an Al Qaeda franchise that has taken root in Yemen, but his government exercises limited control in the tribal areas beyond the capital. The US gives Yemen military aid and training.
Despite Saleh’s gestures, protesters are digging in. Several hundred camped overnight in a square in the capital of Sana, near the city’s university, where their numbers swelled during the day.
At one point, Adam al-Hameeri, a soldier, told the crowd that he had joined them because he felt the government had neglected the armed forces and pushed them into unnecessary wars.
When the MILITARY STARTS DESERTING YOU it's over!
Several tribal leaders also joined the protest. The sheiks’ presence in the square indicated the limited success of Saleh’s efforts early in the unrest to win over leaders in the tribes that dominate Yemeni society. One of the leaders, Sheik Khalid Al-Awadi, said he and the others had come to support the protesters’ “noble goals.’’
Can't he read the WRITING on the WALL?
Similar to the scenes in Tahrir Square in Cairo, the epicenter of the Egyptian uprising, protesters in Sana pitched small tents and set up a platform equipped with loudspeakers. Protesters guarded access roads and searched those entering the square.
In the city of Taiz, tens of thousands of protesters rallied in the central square. “We will not leave this place until the downfall of the regime,’’ activist Ahmed Ghilan said.
Thousands also rallied in the port city of Aden....
Saleh asserted that government opponents are a small minority and that those who want to see him leave should compete in elections. The next scheduled vote is in 2013....
Ever notice dictators lose their sanity as they lose power?
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"In Yemen, two young men were shot dead by government supporters last night during a protest in front of Sana University, medical workers said. They are the first deaths in clashes between pro- and antigovernment demonstrators in the nearly two weeks since students began calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
?????
Eight other people were wounded, medical workers said, when government supporters opened fire on the protesters, who have been staging a sit-in in front of Sana University since Sunday morning.
A makeshift medical clinic treated the wounded while they waited for ambulances to arrive. Protesters at the clinic chanted, “There is no God but God.’’
About 2,000 protesters remained last night after the shooting. They have vowed to stay until Saleh steps down.
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