SANAA: Two anti-regime protesters were killed and seven wounded by gunfire from supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh during clashes in the Yemeni capital on Monday, medical sources said.
"Hussein al-Huri and Hassan al-Sakkaf were fatally wounded, and we admitted seven others with gunshot wounds," a source at Sanaa's Mutawakel hospital said.
Protesters said armed men in civilian clothes emerged from a group of Saleh supporters and opened fire on a small group of demonstrators who had just begun a march from Sanaa's University Square to Zubeir Avenue in the city centre.
The march was called by a hard-core opposition group that rejects any possibility of negotiations on a transfer of power.
Saleh, marking the 33rd anniversary of his rise to power, called for "peaceful dialogue" in an editorial published on Monday, saying this was the way to end the country's long-running political crisis.
Saleh has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia since June 3, receiving treatment for wounds sustained in an explosion at his presidential compound. Protesters have been demanding since late January that he step down.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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