Casualties mount in Yemen’s ‘day of rage’

FT.com / Middle East / Politics & Society - Casualties mount in Yemen’s ‘day of rage’: "casualties in Yemen’s popular protests mounted on Friday, as tens of thousands across the country demonstrated against corruption and the failure of democratic reform in what Facebook organisers dubbed the country’s “day of rage”.

Thousands took to the streets in the capital Sanaa, chanting,

“You’re next after Mubarak, Ali”

, referring to Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled the country for more than 30 years.  Hundreds of government supporters also demonstrated.



Many neighbourhoods in the capital resembled ghost towns, as helicopters circled overhead and families and businesses retreated behind locked doors to huddle around television sets, which broadcast news of clashes, security deployments, deaths and injuries.

At least one person was reported to have been killed in the city of Aden, in Yemen’s restive South."