Thursday, November 3, 2011

Yemeni government troops continue attacks on city of Taiz



Video of Wednesday's  terrible scenes in Yemen's second city of  Taiz. 

 Yemeni government forces clashed with opposition fighters in the central city of Taiz on Wednesday, killing at least nine members of the pro-opposition militia and civilians, a medical official said. Abdel-Raziq al-Gabri, a field hospital doctor, said security forces randomly shelled several neighborhoods in Taiz, where pro-opposition fighters had taken over a government building belonging to the Education Ministry in the city center. Taiz has been at the center of Yemen’s uprising against the rule of Ali Abdallah Saleh that erupted eight months ago. Some 50 people were wounded in the fighting, including civilians, opposition fighters and members of Saleh’s Republican Guards, according to al-Gabri and a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
The Yemen Post newspaper wrote that hundreds of dissident soldiers, officers, and former policemen decided several weeks ago to form an armed unit able to defend the revolution while retaining their independence from any political or military affiliations. The men have been dubbed the People Protectors by Taiz's residents adn are now defending the city with all their might.
In another development Mohammed al-Mutawakil, the secretary general of the opposition popular front party and one of the most important oppsoition leaders, was seriously injured on Tuesday in a traffic accident that, as the opposition think, was a deliberate effort of the government to kill him. Military who ran over and are now loyal to the opposition warned one day earlier that opposition  leaders would be targets of government assassination plots. Mutawakil  was hit by a motorcycle as he was walking down the street. He received serious injuries to the head and is hospitalized.

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