Yemen forces kill 17 in Taez

Yemen’s security forces shot have dead 17 anti-regime demonstrators and wounded dozens more in Taez, medics said. Monday was the second day of lethal clashes in the city, which is about 200 kilometres south of the capital, Sanaa.

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The demonstrators marched on the governorate headquarters in the city to demand that President Ali Abdullah Saleh quit.

The protesters stormed the courtyard of the governorate and plainclothes gunmen and rooftop snipers opened fire in an attempt to push them back, witnesses said.

Another protester was shot dead in Taez Sunday, sending the death toll of crackdowns on protests to over 100 since late January.

In the western city of Hudaydah, witnesses said dozens of people were wounded by police gunfire and rocks in clashes on Monday, while hundreds of others needed treatment for breathing tear-gas.

Thirteen people were shot and wounded in Hudaydah late on Sunday, witnesses said, as police clashed with thousands of demonstrators marching on the Red Sea city's main local government building.

The Common Forum, an opposition coalition, on Saturday called on Saleh to hand power to Vice-President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi in a new "vision for a peaceful and secure transition of power".

But Saleh responded with a call to end protests and remove roadblocks, offering a "peaceful transition of power through constitutional ways".

The US government is dropping Saleh, a former ally in the war on terror, and taking part in efforts to negotiate his departure, according to a report, citing US and Yemeni officials, in the New York Times on Sunday.