Hani Mohammed | AP Photo - Anti-government protestors
carry a wounded defected soldier from the site of
clashes with security forces to a field hospital in
Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. Pro-regime forces,
including snipers picking off protesters from rooftops,
killed several people Monday in a second day of clashes
shaking Yemen's capital, medical and security officials
said.
Mercado told reporters in Geneva that the
casualties were confirmed by UNICEF's local partners
in Yemen.
Yemen's turmoil began in February as the unrest
spreading throughout the Arab world set off largely
peaceful protests in the deeply impoverished and
unstable corner of the Arabian Peninsula that is
also home to an al-Qaida offshoot blamed for several
nearly successful attempts to attack the United
States.
The government has responded with a heavy
crackdown.
President Saleh went to Saudi Arabia for medical
treatment after a June attack on his Sanaa compound
and has not returned to Yemen, but has resisted
calls to resign.
After the dawn Muslim prayer on Tuesday, Saleh's
forces lobbed mortar shells at Change Square, a
plaza at the heart of the city where protesters have
held a sit-in since the uprising began in February.
Medical officials said the shelling killed three
protesters, three rebel soldiers and a bystander.
Clashes between protesters and security forces in
the southern city of Taiz left two more people dead,
they said. The officials spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to share
the information.
Elsewhere in the capital, clashes between
protesters and security forces erupted in several
districts, with gunfire ringing out in areas close
to Saleh's residence and the office of his son and
one-time heir apparent, Ahmed, commander of the
elite loyalist Republican Guards and Special Forces.
In the upscale district of Hadah, home to senior
government officials as well as tribal leaders
opposed to Saleh, gunbattles were raging between
forces loyal to the president's son and bands of
tribal fighters opposed to the regime.
The violence is forcing more of the capital's
residents to flee to the relative safety of rural
Yemen. Scores of pickup trucks and sedans loaded
with families and personal belongings could be seen
headed out in early Tuesday morning after a night in
which loud explosions repeatedly shook the city.
Most of those staying put in the capital are not
leaving their homes for fear of snipers or getting
caught up in gunfights, leaving the city looking
increasingly deserted on Tuesday morning, with most
stores shuttered.