9 more killed in Yemen crackdown

Yemeni security forces use water cannons against anti-government protesters in Taizz on May 9, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179090.html

Yemeni security forces have killed at least nine people in the southwestern city of Taizz, as the government crackdown on anti-regime demonstrations continues.

On Monday, government troops killed one protester while they were trying to break up a demonstration in Taizz, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Eight protesters were also killed and more than 80 others injured in clashes with the police.

Hundreds of thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations in Yemen's major cities since late January, calling for an end to corruption and unemployment and demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Saleh has been in office for nearly 33 years and recently rejected a plan proposed by the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC) that offers him immunity in return for his resignation.

Forty percent of the people of Yemen are living on two US dollars a day or less and one third are wrestling with chronic hunger.

According to local reports, at least 300 protesters have been killed and many others have been injured during clashes with riot police and armed forces loyal to the Yemeni president since the beginning of the anti-regime demonstrations.

Also on Monday, police opened fire on protesters in the western cities of Hudaydah and Dhamar, injuring dozens of people who were holding a demonstration near Hudaydah's university in which they called for the president to step down immediately.