In the western port city of Hodeida on the Red Sea, plainclothes police opened fire on anti-Saleh protesters, wounding five.
Demonstrations calling for the ouster of Saleh also continued elsewhere in the country, with thousands protesting in Taiz, Hudaida, Mukalla, Aden, Baydha and Ibb and other cities in what was dubbed the “Friday of martyrs” to remember the more than 140 people killed in the government’s crackdown.
In the capital, Sanaa, protesters filled a five-mile (eight-kilometer) section of Sitteen Street, a main boulevard on the city’s western edge.
It was the biggest rally in the capital since the protests began.
During a Muslim prayer service in the capital, an imam read out a list of the those killed in the protests, punctuated by female protesters ululating.
“Enough blood, enough killing, just leave, leave, leave,” the imam said during the sermon. “You have to submit to the people’s demands.” Meanwhile, Saleh supporters rallied outside the presidential palace, as they do each Friday. Some waved his portrait in the air.
Saleh, who has ruled over Yemen for 32 years, has refused to step down. More than two months of massive protests and defections by military commanders, ruling party members and other one-time allies have left him clinging to power with the help of loyal military units commanded by one of his sons and other relatives.
In the vicinity of the presidential palace in Sanaa, Saleh's supporters gathered in their weekly congregation to show support to their troubled leader and urged him to stay in power until the end of his term in 2013.
In the so-called “Friday of Constitutional Legitimacy,” Saleh briefly addressed his followers where he thanked them for showing up.
Addressing the crowd, the president labeled his opponents “traitors and agents” and led a chant of “Yes to constitutional legitimacy; no to coups.”
“I would like to salute these millions who came to Al-Sabeen Square and I thank you for your adherence to the constitutional legitimacy,” he said.
Earlier, Saleh accused Qatar of fomenting unrest in Yemen and in the Arab world. He threatened that his government might abstain from signing the GCC deal if the ceremony was attended by Qatar.
“Qatar is financing the chaos in Yemen, Egypt, Syria and all the Arab world. They want to be a superpower in the region. We reserve that we may not sign the deal if Qatar representatives attended the signing ceremony,” Saleh told Russia Today TV.
As the violence has picked up, diplomatic efforts by Arab nations to end the crisis appear to be foundering. A six-nation bloc of Gulf nations is trying to broker a deal for Saleh to hand power to his deputy in exchange for immunity from prosecution for him and his sons.
While Yemen’s established opposition political parties have tentatively accepted the deal, the activists in the streets are rejecting it, insisting that the president and his sons be prosecuted for the killings of protesters and corruption.
