Yemen protesters clash with police, two killed

The clashes erupted when the police opened live ammunition and tear gas to prevent thousands of anti-government protesters from advancing towards the provincial government buildings in Taiz, which killed one protester and injured up to 900 others, local doctors said.

Taiz governor Hamoud Khaled al-Soufi denied the killing of the protester, but admitted that hundreds of people were wounded by rocks and batons, including eight policemen, according to official Saba news agency.

Al-Soufi said that there were no more clashes in the streets, adding that one of the eight injured policemen is in critical condition.

Earlier the day, witnesses told Xinhua News Agency that about ten protesters were hit by bullets and more than 100 protesters were suffering from suffocation and breathing difficulties from tear gas as the rest were seriously injured by batons and rocks from government supporters in Taiz.

The clashes took place after thousands of protesters moved from their sit-in square at downtown Taiz towards the provincial government buildings in a march, which was confronted by government backers and police forces.

"People want to overthrow the regime," the protesters shouted during their march.

Yemen has witnessed daily demonstrations demanding an immediate end to the 33-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh since mid February, but Saleh insisted to stay in power.

Saleh on Sunday met with hundreds of his supporters from Taiz. In the meeting, he delivered a response to the opposition's latest initiative, telling them to give up street protest sit-ins, stop blocking roads and end assassinations if they want him to transfer power peacefully, according to Saba.

"If the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) ends street protest sit-ins, stops blocking roads, ends assassination operations and lifts rebellion situations inside some of the military units, then we will be ready to discuss the process of transferring power peacefully," Saba quoted Saleh as saying.

Saleh's brief response came a day after the opposition JMP offered him a fresh initiative they dubbed it as a "last chance" for Saleh to peacefully move the power to his deputy.

In their new initiative they issued late on Saturday, the JMP proposed five-point terms, under which the power will be transferred peacefully from President Saleh to Vice President Abdal-Rab Mansur Al-Hadii, who is a member of Saleh's ruling General People's Congress party.

They also stipulated that the temporary president would then restructure National Security Agency, the Central Security Forces and the Republican Guards Forces.

They proposed to form a transitional national council, rewrite the constitution and form a temporary national unity government led by opposition in order to work with the interim president to fix the financial and economic problems in the country; Kazinform cites China Daily.

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