Saleh troops kill 17 in Sanaa square, reports

Troops supporting Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh killed at least 17 people in an attack on protesters on Sanaa’s Change Square early on Saturday, witnesses said.

Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah

"Seventeen people were killed and 55 others were wounded" in the assault, said Mohammed al-Qabati, a medic at the field hospital in Sanaa's Change Square told the AFP news agency.

Some of those killed were civilians, while others were soldiers from dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar's First Armoured Brigade, he said.

Soldiers launched the attack a little after midnight on Friday, just a few hours after Saleh called for a truce after returning from three months in hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Troops opened fire with guns and shelled Change Square, the focus of anti-government protests since it was first occupied by demonstrators in January.

Snipers targeted people from buildings around the square, witnesses said.

The latest violence brought the number of those killed to 37 since Friday and to 132 since a fresh wave of violence hit the capital on Sunday.