Yemen protesters shot in street

Security forces fired on crowds of protesting Yemenis today, killing at least six and wounding more than 30, in an increasing crackdown against the uprising.

Troops, some on nearby rooftops, fired wildly on thousands of protesters who marched past the governor’s headquarters in Taiz in the second straight day of violence in the southern city.

Some – including elderly people – were trampled and injured as the crowds tried to flee, witnesses said.

The bloodshed further stoked the nearly two-month-old uprising against president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The opposition has been holding continual protest camps in main squares of the capital Sanaa and other cities around the country, and today new demonstrations in solidarity with the Taiz protesters erupted in several places – including the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, where security forces also opened fire on marchers.

Violence has grown amid frustration over the failure of behind-the-scenes efforts to find a formula to remove Mr Saleh while maintaining a stable transition in the fragmented nation, where poverty and tribal divisions are widespread.

Mr Saleh’s crackdown has been so harsh – killing at least 97 since protests began February 11 – it propelled many of his key allies to the opposition, but still he has refused to step down immediately.

Yemen’s opposition parties over the weekend put out their most detailed outline yet for a handover of power, proposing that Mr Saleh step down to be replaced by his vice president, who would oversee talks on reforming the constitution and planning elections. But the broad opposition is not unified on the idea, with some activists organising the protests opposed to the vice president stepping in.

The violence in Taiz began when thousands of protesters down its main street toward Freedom Square, where demonstrators have been camped, surrounded by security forces.

As the march passed the governor’s headquarters, troops stationed there blocked the procession, and clashes broke out, with some protesters throwing stones.

Troops on nearby rooftops opened fire on the crowd and the marchers then turned to besiege the governor’s headquarters.

“It was heavy gunfire from all directions. Some were firing from the rooftop of the governor’s building,” said one man in the crowd, Omar al-Saqqaf. He said he saw military police load the bodies of two protesters into a car and then speed away.

At least six protesters were killed and more than 30 wounded, some with gunshots to the head and chest said a doctor at a clinic set up by protesters in Freedom Square.

The military has clamped down on the city of nearly half a million, about 120 miles south of the capital, Sanaa. For a second day, tanks and armoured vehicles blocked entrances to the city to prevent outsiders from joining the protests. They also surrounded Freedom Square, bottling up the thousands in the protest camp there and arresting anyone who tries to exit.