Anti-government protesters rally across Yemen to demand ousting president: witnesses

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters rallied on Friday in Yemeni capital Sanaa and another 15 major provinces to repeat demands of immediately ousting President Ali Abdullah Saleh, witnesses said.

The key opponent to President Saleh, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, who is the chieftain of powerful tribal coalition Hashid, came to the anti-government sit-in square outside Sanaa University to perform the Muslim weekly prayer along with thousands of anti-government protesters, according to witnesses.

Following the prayer, the protesters mourned about 30 bodies of al-Ahmar's fighters who were killed in street clashes with government forces, the witnesses said.

Anti-government protesters also rallied in other 15 major provinces dubbing the day "Peaceful Revolution," in reference to their rejection to the four days of Sanaa clashes between Saleh's forces and al-Ahmar's fighters.

In the meantime, the ruling party on Thursday called on its supporters to gather this Friday, but officials of the ruling party canceled it because of the security tension that led republican guards and security forces to block all main roads in downtown and around Saleh's palace in the capital, according to members of the ruling party.

Loyalists of Saleh failed to stage any rally on Friday and Saleh did not deliver any speech.

Four-month-long street protests and political deadlock between Saleh's ruling party and the opposition have almost brought the country on the verge of civil war and economic collapse.

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