Yemen’s dictator keeps butchering his own people

This video is called Pro-government Gunmen Kill at least 10 Demonstrators in Yemen.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Nation in crisis as Saleh stays

Thursday 26 May 2011

by Ben Chacko

An explosion at a weapons storage facility in Sanaa killed 28 people today as the country appeared to be sliding into civil war following the president’s refusal to leave power on Wednesday night.

The Defence Ministry said the explosion had been an accident although opposition figures said the deaths occurred after heavy shelling of the area by pro-government forces.

Troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh have been battling combatants of the Hashid tribe, Yemen‘s largest, since the government attempted to storm the compound of Hashid’s leader Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar on Monday.

Mr Ahmar’s forces have occupied 16 government ministries while the army has responded by bombarding areas under rebel control, using the Interior Ministry as its headquarters.

The explosion brings the death toll from the violence to at least 109.

Mass protests have called for the Yemeni president to step down for months.

Attempts at international mediation seemed close to success last weekend, as Mr Saleh promised he would sign a US-backed deal with the protesters on Sunday, paving the way for his departure.

But instead Sunday saw armed supporters of Mr Saleh besiege diplomatic compounds while the Monday assault on Mr Ahmar’s house sparked widespread violence.

A delegation of tribal leaders sent to negotiate with Mr Ahmar quit their mission on Wednesday, saying they had come under fire from government troops and that Mr Saleh was “not serious about a ceasefire.”

The responsibility for ending the violence rested with the president, they said.

On Wednesday night the president formally refused to step down, stating through a spokesman that “I will not leave power and I will not leave Yemen.

“I don’t take orders from outside.”

He claimed that his departure would turn Yemen into “a failed state” and a “haven for al-Qaida” – and that he did not want the country “dragged into civil war.”

Later that night fighting broke out in Arhab, about 20 miles north-west of Sanaa, between the presidential guard and locals in an indication that the conflict was spreading beyond the capital. Residents of Sanaa also reported that residential areas came under heavy shelling on Wednesday night.

More than 100 people have been killed in four days by fighting between anti-government militiamen and forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh: here.