13 Yemenis killed in protest over fuel price increase

At least 13 persons were killed in clashes with the police in Yemen after demonstrators crashed government offices and set fire in it in anger to the increase in the prices of fuel.

These clashes are the bloodiest in Yemen, on this issue, in the number of persons killed since the beginning of 1998 when 24 persons were killed in less than two weeks of demonstrations and violent clashes over the increase in prices.

Thousands of protesters in the capital Sanaa and other Yemeni cities destroyed the furniture in several government offices and threw stones at the office of the prime minister Abdul Qader Bajmal and blocked the streets by burning tires and damaged electricity generation in several areas.

The protesters, who were chanting slogans calling for toppling the government, also crashed trade centers, cars, and restaurants owned by common citizens before the riot-fighting forces supported by the security forces were deployed in large number to halt the violence.

The Yemeni police opened fire in air and tear gas to disperse the protesters while ambulances admitted the injured victims to hospital.

It is not clear yet, whether the victims were killed by the bullets of the police who opened fire at the demonstrators or by the bullets of the armed demonstrators in a country where most civilians carry weapons.

Witnesses and rescue men said that similar acts of riots took place in other three towns including Zammar, Taaz and al-Dale cities were 7 of the killed 13 persons, including one police man were killed.

In Sanaa, demonstrators blocked the main roads linking the capital to certain governorates including Zammar and Taaz to the south and Amran to the north.

The Yemenis were protesting over the government's announcement which decided on Wednesday to reduce subsidy for fuel prices in the framework of a reform program started in 1995 at the request of the World bank and the International Monetary Fund. The government says that the economy might collapse without the introduction of these reforms.