Yemeni troops shoot into crowd, kill 12, doctor says

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Yemeni troops shoot into crowd, kill 12, doctor says

Yemeni security forces opened fire on an anti-government demonstration in the

capital, Sanaa, on Wednesday, killing 12 protesters and wounding some 190, a

doctor at the scene said.

By AHMED AL-HAJ

The Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni security forces opened fire on an anti-government

demonstration in the capital, Sanaa, on Wednesday, killing 12 protesters and

wounding some 190, a doctor at the scene said.

The violence erupted as about 100,000 government opponents filled a landmark

square, spilling into the streets around the state TV building. Witnesses said

security forces, including members of the elite Republican Guard, fired live

ammunition and tear gas into the crowd to break it up. Snipers were seen on

nearby rooftops aiming at the mass of people.

" Many of the dead and wounded were shot in the head and torso, " Dr. Mohammed

al-Ibahi said.

Yemenis began a civil-disobedience campaign Wednesday, an escalation of their

more than 2-month-old uprising to bring down long-serving President Ali Abdullah

Saleh. Shops, schools and government offices were shuttered.

The closures are planned twice weekly until Saleh steps down, activists said.

The president has clung to power despite the street protests and defections by

many loyalists.

Security forces and Saleh supporters have killed more than 130 people since the

unrest erupted in February.

In the country's second-largest city, Taiz, tens of thousands demonstrated in

main streets against a Gulf Arab initiative, which has proposed giving Saleh and

his family immunity from prosecution if the president steps down within 30 days,

activist Nouh al-Wafi said.

The authors of the Gulf Arab initiative, the six-nation Gulf ation Council

(GCC), will meet Sunday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where its foreign

ministers are to fine-tune the proposal for ending Yemen's crisis.

Yemen's opposition parties said Tuesday they will soon sign the deal, to which

Saleh has agreed. It calls for the creation of national unity government and

would have Saleh transfer power to his vice president within 30 days of the

signing it.

In exchange, Saleh and his family would received immunity from prosecution.

But the proposal has opened a serious rift between opposition parties and the

hundreds of thousands on the streets, who demand Saleh resign immediately.

The head of the Yemeni opposition's council for dialogue, Salem Mohammed

Bassindwa, said GCC chief Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani would visit Sanaa on

Saturday, ahead of the meeting in Riyadh.