Russia urges warring sides in Yemen to put down weapons

MOSCOW, Sept 19 (KUNA) -- Russia on Monday called on conflicting sides in Yemen to set their differences aside and to stop the violence, which is putting the country on the brink of an armed conflict.

The only exit out of the Yemeni crisis is for dialogue to commence between authorities and the opposition, in the midst of the tasking of the President Ali Abdullah Saleh to his deputy, in order to handle the issue of transferring of authority according to the Gulf-state thought up initiative, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.

The economic situation in Yemen is much being affected by the continuation of the political crisis, which is reflecting on the country's ability to provide electrical power to its people, along with food and medicine, the statement went on to warn.

France deplores multiple deaths in Yemeni violence

PARIS, Sept 19 (KUNA) -- The French government on Monday said it deplores the latest round of violence, which killed at least 26 people and wounded several hundred during a demonstration in the capital, Sana'a, on Sunday.

More deaths were reported in violence on Monday and reports said security forces and snipers had fired for the second day on public protests.

"France calls for dialogue among all political forces and for restraint so that these murderous clashes can end," an official statement from the Foreign Ministry said here.

The statement also noted that because of the violent context, the food situation for the population was deteriorating and this made an agreement between the political forces "more and more urgent." France called on the parties to create the environment to "allow for the rapid signature of an accord on the basis of the initiative by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)." The GCC has already sent several missions to Yemen to broker an agreement but last-minute retractions by the Yemeni government prevented this.

On Monday, a GCC envoy again went to Sana'a to attempt to bring an end to the conflict.

Yemeni forces kill 21 more protesters in capital

Erika Solomon

September 19, 2011

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni security forces killed 21 people, some shot by snipers from rooftops, in a crowd of demonstrators on Monday in the worst bloodshed seen since March against a protest movement demanding the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Medics said a further 113 protesters were wounded in the capital Sanaa, a day after 26 demonstrators in a massive anti-government march were shot dead.

Gunfire and shelling echoed sporadically across the divided capital as pro-Saleh troops and protesters clashed on Monday.

"Help me, oh my God look at this slaughter!" said the father of a boy who died from a gunshot wound to the head.

"We were just in the car on Hayel Street (near the fighting). I stepped out to get some food and left my two boys in the car and I heard the older one scream. The little one was shot straight through the head."

Government troops were firing into the air to scatter demonstrators, according to witnesses. But a Reuters reporter saw snipers shooting from rooftops and upper stories of buildings into the throng of demonstrators. Some of the deaths appeared to have been caused by rocket-propelled grenades.

Injured people were whisked on motorcycles to a makeshift hospital in protester-dubbed Change Square where people have been camped for eight months calling for an end to Saleh's 33 years of repressive rule in the poor Arabian Peninsula state.

The gunfire at protesters sparked a nearly one-hour firefight between General Ali Mohsen's First Armoured Division troops, which defected to the protest side some months ago, and government forces. Trucks full of Mohsen troops could be seen rushing from Change Square in the direction of the gunfire.

Mohsen's office said their base had seen flyovers by Yemeni warplanes, prompting it to fire missiles in response.

Yemen is politically paralyzed as Saleh, now being treated in Saudi Arabia for wounds suffered in an assassination attempt, clings to power despite mass nationwide protests. The turmoil could strengthen the Yemen branch of al Qaeda and heighten the risk of militant attacks on U.S. and Saudi targets abroad.

The new bloodshed, shredding a weeks-long stand-off, was the worst since a similar massacre killed 52 people in mid-March.

At another hospital, ambulances were arriving with shattered windows and pockmarked with bullet holes. Copies of the Koran were laid on the chests of the dead.

CHAOS LOOMING?

Despite eight months of protests, and an assassination attempt in June that severely injured Saleh and sent him to Riyadh for surgical treatment, there has been little progress toward overcoming the political impasse, despite numerous diplomatic attempts to broker a transfer of power.

"I fear the situation will get out of hand. There is no new initiative to cool things off and the other political players doubt that Saleh will abide by any terms that are set," said Saadaldeen Talib, a former Yemeni opposition parliamentarian.

"Complete disintegration and chaos might come very soon."

U.N. mediator Jamal bin Omar landed in Sanaa on Monday to review the latest developments, the state news agency SABA said.

Abdullatif al-Zayani, head of a bloc of wealthy Gulf neighbors of Yemen, was expected to arrive in Sanaa later on Monday to try again to win acceptance of a Gulf plan for a transition of power away from Saleh that the president came close to accepting on three occasions, before backpedaling.

Monday's violence erupted as protesters tried to push further into areas of Sanaa controlled by government forces after extending their camp overnight to a junction known locally as Kentucky Roundabout.

Abdulwasia Dahnai, 39, said as he lay on a hospital floor awaiting treatment: "We marched to Kentucky Roundabout. I heard gunshots from above, looked up and could see gunfire coming from the building. Next thing I knew I felt a gunshot in my side."

The area had previously marked the dividing line between parts of Sanaa held by loyalist troops and defected forces.

"The thugs are hurting our brothers. We will go, the road is open. The free men will meet at Kentucky Roundabout!" organizers shouted over loudspeakers in Change Square.

Initially on Monday, anti-Saleh troops under General Mohsen had blocked the protesters' efforts to advance, in an apparent attempt to defuse the situation. Some Mohsen soldiers wound up among the injured at hospitals.

PROTESTER KILLINGS TO BE PROBED

In Geneva on Monday, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr Abdullah Al-Qirbi said Sunday's bloodshed would be investigated and perpetrators would be prosecuted.

In a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, he said: "The government of Yemen expresses its sorrow and condemnation for all acts of violence and bloodshed as those that happened yesterday in Sanaa. The government will investigate and hold accountable all those in charge of these acts."

Sanaa for months has been split between Mohsen's breakaway troops and Saleh loyalist forces in a maze of checkpoints, roadblocks and armoured vehicles that many worry could quickly tip inflamed tensions into military confrontation.

Protesters on Monday managed to extend the territory of their camp by around one kilometers after hundreds slept there overnight. Mohsen's troops entered the area and were fortifying it with sandbags.

The new staked-out area brought protesters and troops backing them within 500 meters (1,650 feet) of the office of Ahmed Ali Saleh, the president's son and head of the Republican Guard units loyal to the government.

"I will go back out today once the doctors check the wound," said Dhuyazen al-Shiah, 23, whose eye was bandaged after bullet fragments hit his face in Sunday's clashes.

"I do this because I was tired of living with no dignity. I worked as a smuggler through Saudi Arabia because I couldn't find a job here. I am committed to this now. I'll keep going and either succeed or I'll die."

Further south, militants suspected of links to al Qaeda clashed with the army in the Abyan provincial capital of Zinjibar, just over a week after Yemen declared its troops had "liberated" the city from Islamist fighters.

Six militants were killed and three soldiers wounded in the fighting in the east of Zinjibar, a security official and residents said on Monday.

"Yemen is on a knife edge," Peter Splinter of human rights group Amnesty International told the top U.N. human rights forum in Geneva, adding the risk of civil war was growing.

"Those who have been protesting peacefully for change are increasingly frustrated by the political deadlock."

Yemeni military source denies Republican Guard's attack on first armored division

Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 19 / Trend A. İsgandarov /

A military source has denied reports by some broadcasters including Al Jazeera and Al Alam about Republican guard's attack on the first armored division’s base, Yemen News Agency reported.

Since February, millions of Yemenis have been demanding the ouster of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years. Yemeni security forces use their weapons to disperse the anti-government actions. According to Western media, for two months the popular unrests in the country killed several hundreds people.

Despite months of protests, Saleh, who has been receiving treatment in neighbouring Saudi Arabia for the past three months for blast wounds he sustained in a bombing at the presidential palace, has so far refused to hand power to his deputy.

The UN plans also calls for the immediate launch of negotiations on the formation of a government of national reconciliation, which would rule the country for an interim period of three or six months during which preparations would be made for a presidential election.

Islamist storm Yemen University, independent students decide to fight back

By: Mohammed al-Kibsi

Sana'a, Sep 18, 2011- On the first day of the academic year the students affiliated to Islah party supported by their militias and by the defected army soldiers stormed Sana’a University and prevented students from studying.

Hundreds of protesters mainly the Islamists broke into the university and forced the students out of lectures halls on Saturday and Sunday.

They also closed the halls and classrooms with locks.

When confronted by some students they brought their militias from the protesting site located out of the university and forced all students out.

Later they organized a demonstration in the yards of the university vowing “No Education and no study until the president is ousted”

The angry independent students organized a rival demo vowing “No politics no politicians yes for education and we want to study”.

Eyewitnesses said that some of the anti regime protesters supported by the defected army soldiers and Islah militias smashed the car of the rector of Sana’a University Prof Khalid Tamim and mistreated him.

They also said that the attackers smashed glasses of the cars of other tutors and officials of Sana’a University.

Howaida Hashim a student at the engineering college , computing department said that militants broke into the computing laboratory and forced her and her classmates out of the lab on Saturday.

She added that they later locked the whole building imprisoning all students and educators inside the building for several hours.

Another student said that a professor tried to stand on the way of the protesters and the soldiers that were backing them from entering to the building but he said that they pushed her back from her chest knocking her down before they could break into the building.

Wadiea Mohammed a student at the engineering college, mechanic department said that he and his classmates went to the college so as to study because they had already wasted 8 months without any education.

“when we arrived at the university we found the members of the student union that is controlled by the Islah party were on the gate of the main lectures hall and they told us to go home or else,” said Mohammed.

“ I waited for few minutes until my classmates arrived and when we found out that we are a majority and that they were a minority we decided to confront them and to express our demand to resume studying”

Ali Mohammed, a student at the engineering college said that last year supposed to be his final year but he couldn’t graduate because the university was closed down as a result of the uprising.

“We took part in the demonstrations against the regime because we wanted more freedoms and to get rid of corruption,” said Ali.

“However now we want to resume education and continue our demands but these people from Islah party have been following the instructions of their leaderships and they have been blocking our freedoms”

“We found out that they are worse than the regime that we are revolting against”

Several students affirmed that the Islah affiliates do not want students to resume education because if all the students of the university came back to education they will represent a majority at the protesting site and this will affect on decision making at the protesting site.

“Now all the protesters in the tents at the protesting site are from Islah part in addition to few others from the rest of the Joint Meeting Parties but there is no one from the independent youth at the protesting site,” said Shadi Abdu.

On Sunday the protesters repeated the same provocations as they came backed by the defected army soldiers and forced the educators and the students out of the studying halls.

Students said that the Islamist protesters backed by the defected army soldiers broke into many halls in all university colleges.

At the civil engineering department they ordered Professor Osama al-Shibami out of the studying hall and when he rejected they attacked him and when the students defended him the defected army soldiers directed their guns at the Professor and at the students forcing him out of the lectures hall.

These events took place prior to the confrontations broke out between the security forces and between the protesters backed by the defected army and the militias of Islah party in different locations in the capital resulting in killing 26 and wounding over 47 in addition to wounding 65 anti riots policemen.

I could not post this news earlier as the power went off all the day in Sana’a since 6 am till 11 30 pm.

Islah militia, 1st armored division burn power generators

SANA'A, Sep. 18 (Saba) - Militias of the Islah opposition party and 1st armored division staged Sunday an unlicensed demonstration come out from the University Square.
A security source from the Interior Ministry said that the militias have thrown molotov bombs at a power station behind the Old University resulting on burning power generators.
They also attacked the anti-riot forces and wounded four soldiers and blaze a military vehicle, the source said.
The source added that the militias have also launched a similar attack against anti-riot forces at Kentaky intersection in Al-Zubairi street.