Antigovernment Protests Continue In Yemen

Last updated (GMT/UTC): 20.02.2011 13:29

Unrest in Yemen continued today as some 3,000 university students gathered in the capital, Sanaa, to demand that President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down.

Thousands of people also staged rallies in the cities of Ibb and Taiz against Saleh, who today renewed his call for opposition parties to pursue a dialogue with the government.

The protests come a day after five demonstrators were wounded during clashes with Saleh supporters and riot police. Witnesses say a protester was shot dead but the Interior Ministry denies the casualty.

On February 18, five people were killed during protests against Saleh's 32-year rule.

Saleh, a U.S. ally against a Yemen-based Al-Qaeda wing, has been struggling to end month-old protests against his regime.

Yemen also faces separatist tensions. The north and south of Yemen formally united in 1990, but some in the south, home to many of Yemen's oil facilities, say northerners have seized resources and discriminated against them.

The family of a leader of Yemen's secessionist Southern Movement, Hasan Baoum, says he was arrested today in the southern port city of Aden by an "armed military group" and taken to an unknown location.

compiled from agency reports