By Nasser Arrabyee/08/04/2011
Two supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh were killed in the capital Sana’a and one anti-Saleh protester was also killed in Taiz and many others injured after the weekly big rallies of the two sides , sources from both sides said Friday.
Sadam Hussein Dahan and Sameer Dahma both from Amran, were killed immediately after they left the rally of Saleh supporters which was held after the Friday sermons in the two big squares of Tahrir and Sabeen where more than million supporters attended from all over the country.
“Dahan and Dahma were driving their car in the street between Ali Muhsen’s armored division and Al Eman university of Abdul Majid Al Zandani, when armed men fired and killed Dahan and Dahman,” Said Abdul Malik Mohammed, an eyewitness who was in the targeted car but not harmed.
“We were coming back from Sabeen rally to support our President Ali Abdullah Saleh and they(gunmen) intercepted our car on which had big pictures of the President,” said Mohammed.
Earlier on Tuesday, four people of Saleh’s supporters were killed when hundreds of Saleh’s tribal leaders clashed with defected soldiers and anti-Saleh protesters almost in the same place.
Meanwhile, the anti-Saleh protester Arafat Ahmed Saeed was killed and about 10 others were injured when security forces opened fire on some protesters who tried to organize a march to the local government compound of Taiz, said Riyadh Al Adeeb, one of anti-Saleh’s protesters in Taiz.
Every Friday, both the pro-and anti-Saleh protesters try to assemble as many as they can.
This Friday, April 8th, 2011, more one million people of Saleh supporters attended the Friday sermons in the two big squares of Tahrir and Sabeen and the streets between and around them.
The President Saleh him self attended the rally after the sermons of the Friday which was called “Friday of Compromise”.
President Saleh blasted the Qatari prime minister who said yesterday that the GCC had a plan for Saleh to immediately step down.
“Our strength and legitimacy is from these millions not from Qatar and its Al Jazeerah, we refuse anything coming from them,” Saleh addressed his supporters in Sabeen square nearby his Presidential Palace.
“We were born free, and brothers and friends must respect the feelings and the will of the Yemeni people who take to streets in millions to refuse the overthrow on democracy.”
But later in the day, Saleh’s office said, that does not mean refusal of the GCC imitative to resolve the Yemeni crisis. Earlier in the week, the US-backed and Saudi-led GCC called the government and the opposition to attend to the Saudi capital for solving the crisis.
“We welcome any initiative from brothers in GCC but we refuse orders,” Saleh’s office said after Saleh’s short speech in the rally.
Before Saleh’s short speech in the rally, the deputy prime minister in the acting government, Rashad Al Alimi, also criticized the Qatari prime minister for saying Saleh should step down as a condition for the GCC mediation.
The Friday sermon speaker in Saleh’s rally, Sharaf Al Kulaisi, called Qatar to be with the peace and not with the war.
The Friday of the anti-Saleh protesters was called the “Friday of Steadfastness”, and also about million people attended to pray for Saleh’s ouster.
Both the pro-and anti-Saleh rally organizers claim that more than five millions attended in each rally.
The speaker in the anti-Saleh Friday was Hamoud Al Hitar, the minister of religious affairs who resigned and from Saleh’s government and declared his support for the anti-Saleh protests.
“Al Qaeda in Yemen is less than 10 per cent of what the officials say in their statements for media,” said Al Hitar, who was responsible for the dialogue program with Al Qaeda elements.
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