At Least 40 Dead In Yemen Crackdown
img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-74704" title="yemen-protest" src="/files/wxrimport/2011-03/yemen-protest.jpg" alt="" width="205" height="105" /><The New York Times reports:
SANA, Yemen — Security forces and government supporters opened fire on demonstrators in the capital on Friday, killing at least 40 people, according to a doctor at a makeshift hospital near the scene. But the crackdown failed to disperse the protest, the largest seen so far in the center of the city.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared a state of emergency shortly after the violence, and denied that security forces had been involved in any shooting.
The level of violence dwarfed that seen in previous clashes during weeks of large protests in cities around Yemencalling for Mr. Saleh’s immediate ouster.
By escalating its violent response, the government appeared to take up the same playbook that Libya and Bahrain have followed this week. The move opened a troubling new chapter for Yemen, a strife-torn nation that is home to one of Al Qaeda’s most active affiliates and has been an American ally in the fight against terrorism.
At a news conference in Sana, Mr. Saleh claimed that the clashes on Friday were between “citizens and demonstrators” and that “the police were not present and did not open fire.”
President Obama condemned violence in a written statement that called on President Saleh “to adhere to his public pledge to allow demonstrations to take place peacefully.” He added: “Those responsible for today’s violence must be held accountable.”
The death toll rose through the afternoon as some of the more than 200 people who were wounded by gunfire, or by rocks hurled by government supporters, succumbed to their injuries, according to the doctor, Muhammed Rizq, and others at a makeshift hospital near the protest site. The majority of those killed had been shot in the head or neck, doctors said.
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