The bodies of two of the three children murdered yesterday by Loyalist forces for Saleh led by his son.

Yemeni forces killed 15 people and wounded dozens when they shelled the southern city of Taez with mortars and artillery, hitting a hospital and a square where anti-government demonstrators were taking part in the Muslim Friday prayers, Al Arabiya reported citing activists.

Security forces loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh started shortly after midnight to shell areas around Freedom Square, where demonstrators hold rallies against the regime, witnesses told AFP.

“A total of 15 civilians were killed, including three children and three women,” a medic source, adding that 12 women were among 40 wounded.

Residents said the shelling in Yemen’s second-largest city later intensified, focusing on the al-Rawdah and Zeid al-Mushky districts, which have been at the forefront of anti-regime protests.

Witnesses said Republican Guard troops, commanded by Saleh’s son Ahmed, also fired artillery rounds into central Taez where thousands of protesters were gathered to call for the veteran president’s prosecution.

SOURCE

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Eight Yemenis were killed in a new upsurge in violence in the capital Sana’a on Sunday, an Al Arabiya correspondent said. The al-Hasba neighborhood in Sana’a was the scene of the most violent clashes since the eruption of the armed struggle between President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s loyalists and his opponents, the correspondent added. “Five people were killed in al-Hasba and scores of others were injured,” he said.

Amid violence which took the death toll in two days to at least 20 people, President Saleh said he expected China and Russia to block U.N. moves to end his rule.

The two countries joined forces to veto a European-sponsored resolution against Syria earlier this month but were not expected to block the resolution on Saleh which is due to go to the Security Council this week, diplomats in New York have said.  MORE

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Today the UK Guardian reports that 18 were shot today after a crowd of 6,000 marched through the capital as Saleh prepared to give televised address.

Scenes of bloodshed greeted the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, on the second day after his surprise return from Saudi Arabia, as government troops under the command of his son Ahmed opened fire on unarmed protesters marching through the capital.

The latest round of bloodshed followed a week of violence in Sana’a in which more than 100 protesters were shot dead, some by government troops using anti-aircraft guns.
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