SANA'A/TAIZ: Government forces fired machine guns Thursday to halt a protest against Yemen's entrenched president, wounding dozens, and Gulf states sought to revive talks on a power transition to stem the rising bloodshed. An opposition leader told Reuters the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council was due in Sana'a Saturday to try to resurrect a deal to end the crisis which fell through last month when President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to sign. “They told us that Abdullatif Al-Zayani will come to Sana'a Saturday in a new attempt to revive the initiative,” he said. A government official played down prospects of an imminent deal, saying only that Zayani would come at some point next week to hear differing views on the deal, which would have eased Saleh out within a month after nearly 33 years in power. Security forces, using machine guns mounted on military vehicles, fired in the air, wounding dozens of protesters setting up roadblocks along a main street in the city of Taiz, 200 km south of Sana'a, a Reuters reporter said. The injured were rushed to a clinic in a square where demonstrators have been camped out for months. Leaders shouting on megaphones urged protesters to head to the main road to reinforce demonstrators as clashes continued. In the southern city of al-Baydah, security forces shot dead two protesters and wounded seven others, a witness said. Washington and Gulf Arab states worry more chaos could give ample room for Al-Qaeda's aggressive Yemen-based wing to operate more freely, and have been eager to implement the Gulf-brokered deal. Reaching a deal may grow harder as violence rises. Yemeni forces killed 13 protesters Wednesday, bringing the overall death toll above 160, and raising fears of a broader descent into conflict in a country where half the population owns a gun. This week's bloodshed may fuel public rage ahead of Friday, the Muslim day of prayer and traditionally the largest day of rallies in the three-month-old revolt against Saleh. “We expect anything now. The more the regime thinks it's reaching its end, the more it increases the violence against us, but we'll remain firm and we're not leaving,” Sana'a protester Abdulkarim Mohammed said. The European Union condemned Wednesday night's violence. But the opposition said: “Arab and international silence to earlier killings by military forces run by Saleh gave a green light to continue in a more brutal way. The international community must take decisive measures to stop these massacres.” The defense ministry website said Thursday Saleh was planning to deploy students of Yemen's military academy to bulk up security forces dealing with widespread protests.
