Summary: SANAA: Yemeni security forces opened fire Friday on demonstrators trying to rip down photographs of the president and at least six were hurt as the biggest protest in a month of unrest rocked the country in a massive call for regime change. Protesters ripped down, burned and stomped portraits of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the town of Sheikh Uthman
SANAA: Yemeni security forces opened fire Friday on demonstrators trying to rip down photographs of the president and at least six were hurt as the biggest protest in a month of unrest rocked the country in a massive call for regime change.
Protesters ripped down, burned and stomped portraits of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the town of Sheikh Uthman, next to the southern port city of Aden, witnesses said.
Security forces hurled tear gas into crowds close to a football stadium and then opened fire, using machine guns mounted on vehicles, said eyewitness Sind Abdullah, 25. It appeared the forces were mostly firing over the heads of demonstrators, who pushed and shoved in a panic to get away.
Tens of thousands of Yemenis also flooded streets and alleys around Sanaa University. About 30 people have been killed since then.
Outside the university dozens of people from both camps hurled rocks at each other as residents fired shots in the air to try and break up fighting. Protesters nearby told Reuters about 10 people were being treated for minor injuries.
Several thousand Saleh loyalists also crammed Sanaa's Tahrir Square, touting pictures of the veteran leader.
"Your duty is to guard stability, I know many of you are suffering economic hardship, but we Muslims are different. Income comes from God and prayer," a preacher told them.
But loyalist numbers were dwarfed by the anti-government crowd, which Reuters reporters put at over 40,000. Tens of thousands of protesters also marched farther south in Taez and Ibb, while similar numbers took to the streets in northern Amran Province.
Other large demonstrations were reported in Hadramawt, Al-Hudaydah, Shabwa and Al-Baida.
Elsewhere in the south, gunmen killed four soldiers on patrol in the city of Hajarain, officials said, blaming Al-Qaeda.
The protesters, marking what they called the "Friday of no return," gave short shrift to Saleh's offer Thursday of a new constitution to be voted on this year and electoral reforms. "We don't want initiatives, we want him to go," said one protester, Ali Abdel-Rahman. Tribesman Mohammad Saleh said: "All of us tribes are here now to demand that this man leaves. We're tired of him." Several of Yemen's influential tribes have turned against Saleh, as have some Muslim scholars and ruling party lawmakers. "It is only a matter of time before we see mass civil disobedience," said a senior government official, who asked not to be identified. "Saleh will likely declare emergency law, but I do not think he will survive."
In a sign that Sanaa was trying to quell the demonstrations, the Internet was slowed to a crawl and phone connections were spotty.
In the central Maareb Province, residents said hundreds of Yemenis demonstrated because they had not been paid for attending Saleh's speech in Sanaa Thursday. The local newspaper Maareb Press said they been promised 50,000 Yemeni riyals ($233) and began shouting "the people demand the fall of the regime" when they did not get the money. -- Agencies
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