Joshua Maricich, an American journalist, told Arab News that he was woken at 7:30am by the armed Yemeni police and taken to passport department where he and his colleague were held for several hours while they collected their passports.
“They told us we were to be deported and gave us an hour to get our things. They did not tell us why we were being deported, saying only that the orders came from the Ministry of Information.”
The other deported journalists were Haley Sweetland Edwards, American, Portia Walker, British and Oliver Holmes, British.
Meanwhile, the governor of Mareb, Naji Al-Zaidi, was stabbed Monday in his neck by an a protestor when his security guards tried to disperse hundreds of protesters in front of his office in Mareb.
The protesters shouted anti-regime slogans. Ten other protesters and four soldiers were injured in the clash. Local source said that the governor was taken to Sanaa for treatment. The Ministry of Interior claimed that when the governor was trying to convince the opposition gunmen not to fire at the government building, one of them stabbed the governor in the neck and injured four of his security guards.
In the province of Al-Jawf, protesters stormed security complex in Masloon district killing three soldiers, including an officer, and burning three military cars and setting the building ablaze. The ministry pointed fingers to the opposition and vowed to hunt them down.
Protesters in Change Square in Sanaa got another shot in the arm as new tribal leaders from powerful tribes joined in.
Tens of tribal leaders and social dignitaries from Bakil tribe, the second largest tribe in Yemen, joined the anti-government protesters and addressed the huge audience in Sanaa.
Many other members of the ruling party have recently resigned and joined the protesters.
Faced with the growing pressure to step down, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh met Monday members of the local council and tribesmen in Khawlan district, Sanaa province, who came to express their support to Saleh, according to Saba news agency.
