Yemen revolutionaries’ council accuses Saleh of killing protesters and attacking defected army
Interior ministry accuses defected army of deploying tanks in residential areas and killing protesters
By Mohammed al-Kibsi
National Council of the revolution popular forces strongly condemned what it called the remnants of the family regime's insistence on dragging the country into a war through targeting the change square and the headquarters of the First Armored Division with artillery and rockets.
The council said that the brutal aggression on the First Armor Division forces and on the peaceful revolution coincides with the return of President Ali Saleh from Riyadh, which confirms that he returned not carrying a peace pigeon and olive branches as he announced following his return, but came back armed with all kinds of destructive weapons to use them fiercely against the peaceful demonstrators.
In its statement issued on Saturday the council said that the insistence of what it described the oppressive gang to blow the situations militarily was a proof for the condition of depression and failure that the regime reached to when could not put the revolution down by all means.
For its part the ministry of interior said that it was the defected army that deployed its tanks into the residential areas and fired at the security forces and at the protesters and accuse the security forces of shelling them.
The ministry strongly denied what media outlets have reported that the security forces attacked the protesters at the change square near Sana’a University.
In a statement issued on Saturday night the ministry said that the defected army and the Islamist militias refused the ceasefire.
“We shoulder responsibility on the First Armor Division and militias of Islah party and of Sheikh al-Ahmar over whatever crimes are being committed,” the statement said.
The ministry also called on the media outlets to report the truth away of being biased to any party.
Residents from the inflicted neighborhoods affirmed that the tanks of the first armor division were deployed in all streets hiding behind the residential buildings and firing at the security forces.
J. Saree from Zira’a Street said that he and his family got trapped in their home as the tanks and troopers of the First Armor Division are located immediately to the west of his house and the security forces to the east of his house.
“They keep shilling each other randomly while me and my family are in between,” said Saree.
He added that both sides ban residents from going out of their homes and shoot at them if they refused their orders.
He said that one of his neighbors asked the troopers of the first armor division to move away a heavy machine gun that they positioned on the roof of the Sana’a old university because the machine gun was directed to his windows. Saree said that the troopers broke into his neighbor house and bit him.
Another resident whose home is on Dairree St. ‘ring road’ close to the Kentucky intersection said that he and his family got trapped in their house’s basement since last Sunday.
His wife affirmed that the militias threw Molotov grenades up to the second floor and burned it. “Fortunately I recognized the fire before it extinguished and we could put it off despite the snipers bullets that hit some of insider walls through the windows,” she said.
They added that the next door building was totally burnt and that many of the neighboring buildings were damaged.
Following his return from Saudi Arabia on Friday president Saleh called for truce and announced that he came back holding olive branches and peace pigeon and that he does not have vain or hatred to any party calling on the opposition parties to respond to peace.
Few hours after his remarks were announced on Yemen TV tensions escalated and at night heavy confrontations broke out in different places across the capital. The sporadic confrontations continued until 2:15 am Sana’a local time when all the sudden the gunfire stopped completely.
The confrontations were believed halted thanks to a mediation committee comprised of the head of the Political Security ‘intelligence system’ Gahlib al-Qamish, Ex minister of local administration AbdulQadir Hillal EX General Ali al-Jaifi, General Fadhl al-Qawsi and Sheikh Ahmad Ismaeel Abu Horyah
On Saturday Saleh instructed the committee that was assigned by his deputy to remove all military presence from all streets of Sana’a, remove check points, and remove all barracks and trenches that were sat up by all conflicting sides.
He also instructed the committee to force all sides to respect its instructions and to respect all its decisions.
He also stressed that the committee has to report the side that breaches the ceasefire and announced the violator publicly.
The spokes person of the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) the main opposition collating parties Mohammed Qahtan said that Saleh has no option other than resigning immediately and to implement the GCC proposal.
Qahtan affirmed that the revolution is a peaceful one and that it would continue its peaceful track until achieving its goals.
Deputy minister of information Abdu al-Janadi in a press conference on Saturday accused thereligous scholars of Islah party of inciting the youth for Jihad and to be martyrs, promising them to go to haven.
“Stop inciting the poor miserable youth to commit suicide while your sons are either abroad or not contributing in any fights as,” al-Janadi addressed the religious scholars.
He also called on President Saleh to resign if he could not stop General Ali Mohsen the commander of the First Armor Division ‘defected army’ from killing innocent people.
“It was you Mr. President that had assigned him and its your responsibility to put an end to his behavior”
Al-Janadi also accused General Mohsen of killing 15,000 people in Sa’ada province adding that General Mohsen had said that he was willing to kill 15,000 others in Sana’a.
Elsewhere newsyemen.net reported that the situations escalated in Taiz city. The website quoted a military source from the defected army saying that the forces loyal to president Saleh attacked the camp of the First Armor Division in Taiz and that over 12 soldiers from the defected army were killed and dozens were wounded on Saturday noon.
The same source added that the government forces shelled the protesting site in Taiz and that many people were wounded.
No independent source was available to confirm what really happened in Taiz.
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