(27 May 2011) HEADLINE: Raw Video: Shots fired at protesters in Yemen
CAPTION: Yemeni security forces, including snipers, opened fire on thousands of anti-government protesters marching to the Cabinet building in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday, killing one and injuring at least 40, medical officials and protesters said. (May 11)
APTN STORY NUMBER: 688261
STORYLINE:
Yemeni security forces, including snipers, opened fire on thousands of anti-government protesters marching to the Cabinet building in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday, killing one and injuring at least 40, medical officials and protesters said.
The protesters, demanding the ouster of long-time President Ali Abdullah Saleh, were marching from a main square toward the Cabinet headquarters when they came under fire from snipers on rooftops, plainclothes security forces, and soldiers with anti-aircraft guns mounted on pick-up trucks, activists said.
They said security forces also used water cannons and fired tear gas.
Yemen has been shaken by nearly three months of protests demanding Saleh's ouster; several top military commanders and ruling party officials have defected to the opposition.
Saleh, in power for more than three decades, has rejected a regional mediation offer and intensified a crackdown that reportedly has killed more than 140 people.
Yemen - the southern neighbour of Saudi Arabia - faced crises even before the protests, plagued with widespread corruption, a weak central government, a Shiite rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and an active branch of al-Qaida operating in the back country.
One of the demonstrators, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, said protesters used motorcycles to carry the injured to places where they could be treated - in some cases being halted en route by plainclothes officers who took injured protesters to police vehicles.
A medical official from a clinic said two protesters were struck in the head by bullets and were in critical condition. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the press. Another medical official at Kuwait Hospital said a body of a slain protester arrived at the hospital.
Wednesday's march to the Cabinet building was part of protesters' plan to escalate their opposition movement by holding repeated protests in front of state institutions.
Tawakul Karman, a senior member of the main opposition party, Islah, said plans were developing for protest marches on the presidential palace in Sanaa, and other government buildings elsewhere, to press Saleh to step down.
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