Sanaa, Sept 24: At least 40 people, among them dissident soldiers, were killed in violence that rocked Yemen's capital today, an activist from the protest organising committee told AFP.
“More than 40 people were killed on Saturday” in battles that hit several neighbourhoods across Sanaa, including Change Square, epicentre of anti-regime protests since February, the activist said.
As gun battles raged across the capital, hundreds of thousands set out in a massive demonstration from Change Square, which itself came under security force gunfire from several directions, witnesses said.
A dissident military spokesman said 11 of his regiment's troops were killed today and 112 wounded when elite Republican Guard troops, commanded by President Ali Abdullah Saleh's son Ahmed, attacked a camp of the First Armoured Brigade north of Change Square.
“The camp was targeted by 60 shells,” said the spokesman. Fierce fighting between Yemeni security forces and dissident troops has rocked Sanaa since last week, killing 173 people.
Seventy-eight people have been killed since Saleh returned yesterday after three months in Saudi Arabia, despite his call for peace in the restive country. AFP
