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Yemeni protesters vow to escalate into strife

Updated: 2011-03-28 10:14

(Xinhua)

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Yemeni protesters vow to escalate into strife
Anti-government protesters shout slogans during a rally to demand the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh, outside Sanaa University March 27, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

SANAA - Youth-led street protesters flared out at reform initiatives announced by the Yemeni president on Sunday, vowing to escalate their peaceful demonstration into a full-scale strife.

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They said they will not leave the "Change Square" outside Sanaa University in the capital unless President Ali Abdullah Saleh leaves.

"We will not go away from this protest square unless this tyrant leaves along with his corrupted regime which devastates the crops and nation," a protester named Mohamed Haidar told Xinhua.

It came after Sunday's broadcasting on state TV of the latest decisions of Saleh's ruling party that the president will stay in office until 2013 and form a new government to draft a new constitution and an election law.

Om Mohamed, a mother attending the protest near Sanaa University, said "We swear to never return home until Saleh is deported and we will prosecute him for murdering our sons and husbands in the shooting on March 18."

The shooting claimed the lives of 52 protesters, including some children in the square. It was considered a "massacre" as scores of Saleh's allies, including top army officers, then declared to support the anti-Saleh movement.

The opposition coalition accused the authorities of being behind the snipers' shooting, while Saleh later confirmed the perpetrators were not policemen, but some nearby residents disturbed by the protests.

About 13 anti-government female protesters were injured on Sunday after government backers attacked the women's rally in the southern province of Ibb, according to witnesses.

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