Friday prayers again exploded into protests in cities nearly across the Arab world, with demonstrators killed by police in Syria and Yemen, and thousands of Egyptians again filling Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Greece protested Turkish plans for a nuclear plant in an earthquake zone on the Mediterranean at the EU summit in Brussels. while IAEA inspectors visited a Syrian site where it is suspected nuclear fuel is being produced.
Security forces again fired on protesters in Syria, as rival pro- and anti-government demonstrators filled the streets of Yemen, and Egyptians again filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a rally to “save the revolution.”
In a long-awaited public address, President Bashar Assad blamed foreign conspiracies for Syria’s unrest, while calling hundreds of thousands of his supporters to the streets in a massive show of force.
Hundreds of thousands again took to the streets in Yemen to demand the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as protesters charged official complicity in a deadly blast at a munitions plant that authorities blamed on al-Qaeda.
Activists for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia decried the regime’s decision to keep a voting ban in place at a time when Arab governments are taking steps to avert pro-democracy uprisings.
Clashes are reported from Yemen between the Republican Guard and army units that have declared for the revolution, as security forces again fired on protesters in Syria. Street clashes are also reported in Jordan.
Yemen’s Parliament enacted several emergency measures at the request of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in an effort to end anti-government protests—but opposition lawmakers rejected the vote as illegal and fraudulent.
Syrian security forces killed 15 people in the city of Deraa, witnesses and rights activists said. Seven were killed when security personnel fired on a group of protesters that gathered after dawn prayers outside al-Omari mosque.
Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalif announced that “a foreign plot” against the small Gulf state has been foiled, while opposition leaders charged that Washington had given the regime a “green light” for repression.
Tanks were deployed in the Yemeni capital, surrounding the presidential palace and defense ministry, as top generals and tribal leaders pledged allegiance to the “revolution” against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemen declared a state of emergency as Syrian security forces again fired on demonstrators, killing at least one. Thousands meanwhile marched for democratic reform in Casablanca, Rabat and other cities across Morocco.
