Al menos tres personas han muerto y 15 han resultado heridas hoy durante unos enfrentamientos en Sanaa entre partidarios y opositores del presidente yemení, Alí Abdulá Salé. Los manifestantes contrarios al régimen se pusieron a lanzar piedras después de recibir disparos al intentar abandonar el campamento que han instalado en la capital. Una unidad del Ejército que estaba protegiendo el lugar de la protesta estaba intentando poner fin a la contienda.

Según aseguran varios testigos a EFE, miembros de la tribu Shabuan, a la que pertenece Salé, acompañados de guardaespaldas armados, han intentado acceder a la Plaza Al Tagir ("el cambio", en árabe), donde se concentraban miles de manifestantes, para mediar en el conflicto entre el régimen y la oposición. Cuando se aproximaban a uno de los accesos a la plaza, controlados por militares seguidores del hermanastro de Salé, Ali Mohsen, que se unió a las filas de la oposición hace dos semanas, se ha producido un tiroteo entre los soldados y los guardaespaldas.

Además, las fuerzas de seguridad y hombres armados vestidos de paisano han abierto fuego durante otra protesta en la ciudad de Taiz, al sur de Sanaa, donde ayer 17 personas murieron por disparos de las fuerzas del orden. Decenas de personas han resultado heridas en los enfrentamientos de esta mañana, según Reuters. Cientos de efectivos de seguridad han atacado a las decenas de miles de manifestantes, mientras hombres armados que, según los testigos citados por Efe, serían policías de paisano, han ayudado a reprimir la protesta con palos y dagas. Los manifestantes, que piden la dimisión del presidente yemení, que lleva 32 años en el poder, han respondido lanzando piedras contra las fuerzas de seguridad.

Desde el pasado 27 de enero, Yemen registra manifestaciones contra Salé, que han ganado intensidad a partir de mediados de febrero. Ante la escalada de violencia en Yemen, hoy la Unión Europea ha urgido al presidente Salé a poner fin a la violencia contra los manifestantes y a iniciar de forma inmediata el proceso de transición hacia un régimen democrático. La Alta Representante de Relaciones Exteriores de la UE, Catherine Ashton, ha expresado en un comunicado su "profunda preocupación" por la represión violenta de las protestas ocurridas en las principales ciudades del país en los últimos días.

"Al contrario de anteriores compromisos realizados, no se está garantizando la libertad de expresión ni la seguridad de los manifestantes pacíficos", ha denunciado Ashton. La alta representante ha explicado que la semana pasada habló personalmente con el presidente yemení, a quien reclamó que cumpliera esos compromisos y ordenara a las fuerzas responsables "el cese inmediato de la violencia". Ashton, que ha pedido al gobierno yemení y las fuerzas de seguridad el respeto y protección de los derechos humanos y las libertades fundamentales, se ha mostrado también preocupada por "el deterioro de la seguridad y de la situación económica". "Reitero mi llamamiento al inicio de una transición política ordenada para resolver la actual crisis y a preparar la vía para las reformas", ha explicado la alta representante.

En muchas poblaciones los manifestantes expulsaron a la policía y el ejército,
y crearon milicias

Más protestas en Yemen

Sanaa (AP).– En una nueva jornada de protestas, cientos de miles de yemeníes salieron ayer a las calles de varias ciudades para exigir la dimisión del presidente y denunciar la participación del gobierno en una reciente explosión en una fábrica de municiones en el sur del país, que dejó un centenar de muertos.

Las protestas ocurrieron en Sanaa, la capital, así como en otras ciudades. Los grupos opositores acusaron al presidente, Ali Abdullah Saleh, de colaborar con milicianos de Al–Qaeda al retirar al ejército de la fábrica y permitir la ocupación de la zona por la red terrorista.

La oposición cree que el gobierno dejó la fábrica en manos de Al–Qaeda para alimentar el miedo de Occidente de que si Saleh abandona la presidencia habrá un vacío de poder que será ocupado por la red terrorista.

Por su parte, Saleh propuso a los opositores permanecer en el cargo hasta que se realicen elecciones, pero transfiriendo sus poderes a un gobierno provisional, según dijo una fuente de la oposición.

Saleh presentó su oferta en una reunión celebrada anteanoche con Mohammed al–Yadoumi, jefe del partido islamista Islah. Fue la primera vez que el presidente negoció con Islah, otrora socio de su gobierno.

Sin embargo, los manifestantes sostuvieron que no cederán hasta que Saleh renuncie.

Las manifestaciones en Yemen, el país más pobre de la Península Arábiga, comenzaron a mediados de enero, inspiradas en las revueltas de Túnez y Egipto.

En marzo, el control del Estado disminuyó bruscamente ante las protestas multitudinarias en las grandes ciudades. En muchas poblaciones los manifestantes expulsaron a la policía y el ejército, y crearon milicias de autodefensa.

Clashes Escalate in Yemen:
at Least 12 Protesters Are Killed

Sanaa, Yemen — Deadly violence broke out Monday across Yemen amid signs that the United States had concluded that President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a longtime ally, must be eased out of office.

Security forces and plainclothes government supporters opened fire from rooftops and the street on tens of thousands of protesters, according to witnesses, as clashes spread for a second day through the central city of Taiz. At least 10 people were killed, the official Saba news agency said; a doctor at a local hospital said 12 people had died and 50 were wounded in the gunfire.

In the western port city of Al Hudaydah, two protesters were killed Monday evening by gunfire from plainclothes government supporters during a march on the presidential palace there. Saba confirmed the deaths.

The violence in Taiz, where tens of thousands have staged a sit–in for more than six weeks, was the deadliest seen there and came amid signs that the United States had concluded that President Saleh must give way. Protesters have demanded that he step down immediately.

Yemen’s coalition of opposition political parties condemned the violence and implored foreign powers to “quickly intervene to stop President Saleh and his entourage from shedding more Yemeni blood.”

Witnesses said the clashes in Taiz on Monday began when protesters tried to march on a presidential palace two miles from the neighborhood where demonstrators have been staging the sit–in.

Security forces confronted the crowds and tried to prevent them from continuing to the palace, using tear gas before firing bullets into the air and then at protesters as others fired from rooftops around the protesters’ route, witnesses said.

The Associated Press, citing witnesses reached by telephone, said some protesters had been trampled by fleeing crowds.

“There were people dressed in both soldier uniforms and civilian clothes shooting live bullets from rooftops,” said Abdul Habib al–Qadasy, 47, an engineer who was at the protest in Taiz.

The violence resembled a crackdown two weeks ago in the capital, Sanaa, when snipers linked to the government fired from buildings in an effort to prevent protesters from marching. More than 50 people were killed.

While acknowledging the outbreak of violence in Taiz, the government gave a different account of how it began, saying the police had intervened only to break up a clash between protesters and government supporters.

“They went to one very crowded street in Taiz and planned to sit,” a high–ranking government official in Sanaa said of the protesters. “They took about 300 people. The shopkeepers and the residents on that street said; ‘Please don’t. If you sit here, you are going to hurt us.’ And so they started fighting and the police came.”

The official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the clashes, said he had spoken to the governor of Taiz, who said the security forces had fired shots only into the air. The official suggested that those who died had been shot in an exchange of gunfire between plainclothes government supporters and armed protesters. “The protesters have a plan of escalation,” he said.

Until recently, demonstrations in Taiz have been largely confined to one area surrounded by security forces and civilian–run weapons checkpoints. But in the last few days, protesters have begun marching outside that area, apparently in an effort to ratchet up pressure on the government.

Protesters also staged simultaneous large marches in two other areas of the city, and hundreds marched in Al Hudaydah, where the security forces fired tear gas and shot into the air to disperse the crowds. In addition to the two people who were killed, dozens were reported injured, including four police officers, according to the state news agency.

On Monday in Sanaa, protesters reacted to reports of the violence in Taiz by trying to march about a half–mile south of their own sit–in area, according to Adel al–Suraby, a student protest leader. Men in civilian clothes reacted by throwing stones at the protesters, Mr. Suraby said, hurting at least five people.

Some protesters said the violence in Taiz presented an opportunity for the United States to become directly involved in ending Mr. Saleh’s 32–year rule.

“We love America, and we need America’s help,” Mutahar Sufan, a doctoral student, said Monday at the demonstration in Sanaa. “We don’t want to hear about negotiations between America and Saleh, or we don’t want to hear it from the media that they want Saleh to leave. We want America to say it directly so we believe it.”

(*) Laura Kasinof reported from Sanaa, and J. David Goodman from New York.

U.S. Shifts to Seek Removal of Yemen’s Leader, an Ally

SANA, Yemen — The United States, which long supported Yemen’s president, even in the face of recent widespread protests, has now quietly shifted positions and has concluded that he is unlikely to bring about the required reforms and must be eased out of office, according to American and Yemeni officials.

The Obama administration had maintained its support of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in private and refrained from directly criticizing him in public, even as his supporters fired on peaceful demonstrators, because he was considered a critical ally in fighting the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda. This position has fueled criticism of the United States in some quarters for hypocrisy for rushing to oust a repressive autocrat in Libya but not in strategic allies like Yemen and Bahrain.

That position began to shift in the past week, administration officials said. While American officials have not publicly pressed Mr. Saleh to go, they have told allies that they now view his hold on office as untenable, and they believe he should leave.

A Yemeni official said that the American position changed when the negotiations with Mr. Saleh on the terms of his potential departure began a little over a week ago.

“The Americans have been pushing for transfer of power since the beginning” of those negotiations, the official said, but have not said so publicly because “they still were involved in the negotiations.”

Those negotiations now center on a proposal for Mr. Saleh to hand over power to a provisional government led by his vice president until new elections are held. That principle “is not in dispute,” the Yemeni official said, only the timing and mechanism for how he would depart.

It does remain in dispute among the student–led protesters, however, who have rejected any proposal that would give power to a leading official of the Saleh government.

Washington has long had a wary relationship of mutual dependence with Mr. Saleh. The United States has provided weapons, and the Yemeni leader has allowed the United States military and the C.I.A. to strike at Qaeda strongholds. The State Department cables released by WikiLeaks gave a close–up view of that uneasy interdependence: Mr. Saleh told Gen. David H. Petraeus, then the American commander in the Middle East, that the United States could continue missile strikes against Al Qaeda as long as the fiction was maintained that Yemen was conducting them.

“We’ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours,” Mr. Saleh said, according to a cable sent by the American ambassador. At other times, however, Mr. Saleh resisted American requests. In a wry assessment of the United States, he told Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s counterterrorism chief, that Americans are “hot–blooded and hasty when you need us,” but “cold–blooded and British when we need you.”

The negotiations in Sanaa began after government–linked gunmen killed more than 50 protesters at an antigovernment rally on March 18, prompting a wave of defections of high–level government officials the following week. The American and Yemeni officials who discussed the talks did so on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private and still in progress.

It is not clear whether the United States is discussing a safe passage for Mr. Saleh and his family to another country, but that appears to be the direction of the talks in Sanaa, the capital.

For Washington, the key to his departure would be arranging a transfer of power that would enable the counterterrorism operation in Yemen to continue.

One administration official referred to that concern last week, saying that the standoff between the president and the protesters “has had a direct adverse impact on the security situation throughout the country.”

“Groups of various stripes — Al Qaeda, Houthis, tribal elements, and secessionists — are exploiting the current political turbulence and emerging fissures within the military and security services for their own gain,” the official said. “Until President Saleh is able to resolve the current political impasse by announcing how and when he will follow through on his earlier commitment to take tangible steps to meet opposition demands, the security situation in Yemen is at risk of further deterioration.”

In recent days, American officials in Washington have hinted at the change in position.

Those “tangible steps,” another official said, could include giving in to the demand that he step down.

At a State Department briefing recently, a spokesman, Mark Toner, was questioned on whether there had been planning for a post–Saleh Yemen. While he did not answer the question directly, he said, in part, that counterterrorism in Yemen “goes beyond any one individual.”

In addition to the huge street demonstrations that have convulsed the country in the last two months, the deteriorating security situation in Yemen includes a Houthi rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and an active Qaeda operation in the southeast. Houthi rebels seized control of Saada Province a week ago, and armed militants have taken over a city in the southern province of Abyan where Al Qaeda is known to have set up a base.

Among Yemenis, there is a feeling that there is a race against the clock to resolve the political impasse before the country implodes. In addition to the security concerns, Yemen faces an economic crisis.

Food prices are rising; the value of the Yemeni currency, the rial, is dropping sharply; and dollars are disappearing from currency exchange shops. According to the World Food Program, the price of wheat flour has increased 45 percent since mid–March and rice by 22 percent.

Analysts have also expressed concern that Mr. Saleh is depleting the national reserves paying for promises to keep himself in power. Mr. Saleh has paid thousands of supporters to come to the capital to stage pro–government protests and given out money to tribal leaders to secure their loyalties. In February he promised to cut income taxes and raise salaries for civil servants and the military to try to tamp down discontent.

“It’s not a recession, it’s not a depression, it’s a mess,” said Mohammed Abulahom, a prominent member of Parliament for Mr. Saleh’s governing party who now supports the protesters.

The fact that the Americans are “seriously engaged in discussion on how to transfer power shows their willingness to figure out a way to transfer power,” he said.

He said the Americans “are doing what ought to be done, and we will see more pressure down the road.”

The criticism of the United States for failing to publicly support Yemen’s protesters has been loudest here, where the protesters insist the United States’ only concern is counterterrorism.

“We are really very, very angry because America until now didn’t help us similar to what Mr. Obama said that Mubarak has to leave now,” said Tawakul Karman, a leader of the antigovernment youth movement. “Obama says he appreciated the courage and dignity of Tunisian people. He didn’t say that for Yemeni people.”

“We feel that we have been betrayed,” she said.

Hamza Alkamaly, 23, a prominent student leader, agreed. “We students lost our trust in the United States,” he said. “We thought the United States would help us in the first time because we are calling for our freedom.”

Late Saturday night, Yemen’s opposition coalition, the Joint Meetings Parties, proposed an outline for a transfer of power that has become the new focus of the talks. The proposal calls for power to be transferred immediately to Vice President Abd al–Rab Mansur al–Hadi until presidential elections are held.

The young protesters have rejected the proposal, or any that would leave a leading Saleh official in charge.

Late Sunday, the Gulf Cooperation Council, an association of oil–rich countries in the Persian Gulf, added its backing to the talks, issuing a statement saying it would press the Yemeni government and opposition to work toward an agreement to “overcome the status quo.” The group called for a return to negotiations to “achieve the aspirations of the Yemeni people by means of reforms.”

So far the council, including Yemen’s largest international donor, Saudi Arabia, has not taken part in the negotiations, Yemeni officials said.

There were also more clashes between security forces and protesters on Sunday and Monday in the city of Taiz. Hundreds of people were injured by tear gas, rocks and gunfire. Witnesses said security forces fired at the protesters and into the air. Reuters, speaking by phone to anonymous hospital workers in Taiz, reported at least a dozen protesters had been killed on Monday and 30 injured from the gunfire.

Early Monday, security forces in Hodeidah, a western port city, used to tear gas to break up a protest march on the presidential palace there.

According to Amnesty International, at least 95 people have died during two months of antigovernment protests.

(*) Laura Kasinof reported from Sanaa, Yemen, and David E. Sanger from Washington.