Yemeni security forces shot dead 17 anti-regime demonstrators and wounded scores more on Monday, on the second day of lethal clashes in Taez

Yemeni security forces shot dead 17 anti-regime demonstrators and wounded scores more on Monday, on the second day of lethal clashes in Taez, south of the capital, medics said.

The bloodshed came as demonstrators staged a march on the governorate headquarters in the city to demand the ouster of Yemen's embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Witnesses said the demonstrators stormed the courtyard of the governorate and that plainclothes gunmen opened fire in an attempt to push them back.
  
The bloodshed, a day after another protester was shot dead in Taez, sent the death toll to more than 100 in a crackdown on protests in the impoverished Arabian peninsula state since late January.
  
In a similar confrontation, 13 people were shot and wounded late on Sunday as police clashed with tens of thousands of demonstrators in the western city of Hudaydah, according to witnesses.
  
Police opened fire as the protesters marched on to the Red City sea's main local government building, the witnesses said. Thirteen were wounded by live bullets, another 30 by batons and pebbles, while 400 others suffered from the effects of tear gas inhalation.
According to a report in the New York Times on Sunday, citing US and Yemeni officials, the US government is dropping its support for Saleh and taking part in efforts to negotiate his departure and a transitional handover.
  
US officials have told allies they see Saleh's position as untenable due to the widespread protests, and believe he should leave office, the paper said, adding that negotiations over his  departure began more than a week ago.