Yemen’s Saleh rejects opposition offer of smooth exit from power as four protesters martyred
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejected on Friday an opposition plan for him to transfer power this year, as demonstrations against his three-decade rule over the impoverished nation swelled into hundreds of thousands with more victims falling day after another.
FOUR PROTESTERS SHOT DEAD
In the latest developments, Yemeni soldiers martyred four protesters and wounded at least seven others Friday when they opened fire on a pro-democracy rally calling for President Saleh's departure in the northern province of Amran.
A Yemeni security official, however, could only confirm there was a gunfight in which four soldiers and three "armed men" were wounded.
Earlier, an opposition leader told AFP "two protesters were killed and nine others were wounded when soldiers opened fire from a military position on the demonstration calling for Saleh's departure." The death toll rose to four when two of the wounded protesters died, according to a government official who declined to be named.
Protesters had taken to the streets of the nearby town of Harf Sufyan to criticize corruption and call for a regime change after 30 years of rule by Saleh. But an unnamed security official said later that a gun battle broke out when an armed group stormed the army post, wounding three gunmen and four soldiers, two of them seriously. The official quoted by state news agency Saba claimed no demonstration took place in the area.
SALEH REJECTS OFFER
The shooting came a day after the opposition and clerics offered embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh a smooth exit from power. However, Saleh reportedly rejected the offer and insisted to remain in power until the last minute.
According to Reuters, Saleh, who has ruled the poverty-stricken Arab country for 32 years, is sticking to his earlier offer to step down only when his term ends in 2013. Yet, he agreed to a reform plan proposed by the religious leaders which would revamp elections, parliament and the judicial system.
"The president rejected the proposal and is holding on to his previous offer," the opposition's rotating President Mohammed al-Mutawakil said on Friday. There was no direct word from the government.
The plan, agreed on at a meeting of opposition groups and religious scholars, seeks to end the country's political crisis and make sure Saleh steps down by the end of 2011. It calls for a "peaceful transition of power" from Saleh, and also demands a probe be launched into a deadly crackdown on the recent anti-government protests.
DEMOS CONTINUE
Meanwhile, protesters staged new demonstrations and continue to demand his immediate ouster.
"Oh God, God please get rid of Ali Abdullah," demonstrators chanted in the capital Sanaa, where protests stretched back for more than 2 km in the streets around Sanaa University.
Clerics sympathetic to the opposition, whose ranks have grown with the defection of Saleh allies, joined protesters in Sanaa for Friday prayers and called on Yemenis to take to the streets to demand Saleh step down.
Protesters flooded the streets surrounding Sanaa University - possibly around 100,000 rallied in what was among the largest demonstration in the capital yet. Similar numbers demonstrated in Taiz, south of Sanaa. More than 20,000 protesters marched in Aden, once the capital of an independent southern state, some carrying black flags of mourning for three protesters killed in the city last week. Tens of thousands more marched in Ibb, south of Sanaa.
Opposition leaders put the combined number of protesters at more than 500,000 in Sanaa and Taiz alone, but that could not be independently verified.
Reuters reported, meanwhile, that Saleh loyalists organized a counter-protest on Friday attended by about 100,000 people, in a sign that the embattled leader can still draw large crowds.
