2 Protesters Killed in Yemen

AP/Hani Mohammed

Supporters of the Yemeni government shout slogans as they try to enter Sanaa University where anti-government protestors gather, in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011.

More protesters, now in Yemen, calling for a change in their government. Again, we see that an ally of the US is being called to step down.

The story is almost identical to what we read about the situation in Egypt, just a different cast of characters.

Yemen – Police opened fire on protesters during clashes in a southern Yemeni port Wednesday, killing two people, in the first known deaths in six days of Egypt-style demonstrations across the country's biggest cities, demanding the ouster of the president, a key U.S. ally in battling al-Qaida.


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 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 so-called "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 named 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 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 and impoverished nation.

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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.