Three killed as tens of thousands rally across Yemen

Police killed three people as vast crowds took to the streets across Yemen after weekly Muslim prayers, staging mass protests to demand that veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down. Clashes between police and demonstrators on Friday continued into the night in the restive south, where three people died and 40 were wounded, medics said. The port of Aden, the main city in south Yemen, saw the worst of the violence, with thousands of protesters confronting security forces who used live ammunition to disperse them, the hospital source said. Witnesses said the security forces opened fire at a sit-in of protesters gathered in front of a hotel on the main street in the Maalla district to demand the departure of Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years. In Aden's Crater district, hundreds of demonstrators tried to attack a police station and blocked roads in other quarters with burning tyres, witnesses said. Protesters were also prevented from gathering in a square near the security headquarters and several consulates. A teenager was killed when security forces fired tear gas and live rounds as thousands marched from several parts of Aden towards tightly patrolled Al-Aroob Square in the Khor Maksar neighbourhood, witnesses said. Mohammed Ahmed Saleh, 17, died from gunshot wounds in hospital in Khor Maksar, a hospital official told AFP. The identities of the two other victims were not immediately known. "Police dispersed thousands of protesters by force in Al-Arish neighbourhood," one organiser, Wafi al-Shabi, told AFP. Security forces also arrested many demonstrators, said Shabi, who added that he did not have exact figures on the numbers held. The latest deaths raised to 15 the number of victims of almost daily clashes between police and protesters in Aden since February 16, according to an AFP tally based on reports by medics and witnesses. In the capital Sanaa earlier, tens of thousands of protesters poured into a main square near Sanaa University chanting "Out, out!" and "God bears witness to your acts, Abdullah," an AFP correspondent reported. Organisers estimated the numbers at 100,000. Police set up checkpoints after Saleh on Thursday ordered his forces to offer "full protection" to anti-regime protesters and loyalists alike. In the past week two people have been killed in clashes with Saleh loyalists in Sanaa, and one was killed in similar violence in Taez, south of the capital, where an AFP correspondent and organisers said hundreds of thousands of anti-Saleh protesters demonstrated. The protesters had dubbed Friday "the beginning of the end" for Saleh's regime, which has been in power since 1978. "There is no solution unless the regime steps down," prayer leader Sheikh Abdullah Satar told the faithful over a megaphone. Saleh loyalists also demonstrated in the capital's Tahrir square, where they have been since early February. In the south, anti-Saleh demonstrators also clashed in Hadramawt with militants from the Southern Movement carrying banners calling for the secession of the formerly independent south, witnesses said. No casualties were reported. And in Yemen's northern Saada province, "tens of thousands demonstrated" against Saleh and in solidarity with protesters across the country, the northern Shiite rebels said in a statement on their website almenpar.net. "The protesters carried banners reading 'No to oppression and tyranny,' 'Your blood, people of Sanaa, Taez, and Aden has united Yemenis'," the statement said. The people also called on Saleh to leave, said the website of the Zaidi Shiite rebel movement which from 2004 fought six wars with Saleh's government before signing a truce in February 2010. Saleh has resisted pressure to resign but has promised not to seek re-election when his current term ends in 2013 and has promised political reforms. The uprising against Saleh was inspired by similar revolts that toppled the seemingly unshakeable presidents of Tunisia and Egypt.