Yemen: Dozens Slain Amid Street Protests

Twenty-one people were killed and approximately 100 more were injured when snipers fired upon passers-by and peaceful protesters demonstrating at Yemen’s Change Square. The clashes arose as protesters pressed further into territory held by government forces. The latest violence occurred a day after government forces used anti-aircraft guns and automatic weapons to kill 26 Yemeni demonstrators in Sana’a.

The renewed crackdown came amid reports that Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi would sign a Gulf Arab initiative arranging for a transfer of power in Yemen “within a week”. Abdu al-Janadi, Yemen’s deputy information minister, denied that the regime had planned the attacks and blamed the deaths on “unknown assailants.” According to a witness the victims were between the ages of 16 and 22.

Tariq Alhomayed, the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq Alawsat, urges the public to avoid speculating about Yemen’s transfer of power because it inevitably leads to dangerous escalations. In his analysis, Abdul-Ghani Al-Iryani contends that many of Yemen’s youth may need to reconsider their alliances with political elites and that the Yemeni revolution has been stalled because it lacks many of the necessary prerequisites, including a large and mobile middle class, a strong civil society, high literacy rate, and internet penetration. Tom Finn asserts that unless the U.S. and Yemen’s Gulf neighbors assist the transition, Yemen’s fate will be in the hands of “fractious armed forces and powerful tribal chiefs.”