Clashes occurred against Yemeni youths protested over a power transfer deal that grants President Ali Abdullah Saleh immunity from prosecution left 35 people injured on Tuesday.
Clashes occurred against Yemeni youths protested over a power transfer deal that grants President Ali Abdullah Saleh immunity from prosecution left 35 people injured on Tuesday, witnesses and medics said.
"Some 2,000 members of Al-Islah (reform) party, among them dissident soldiers, attacked our camp at dawn, injuring 35 people," Khalid al-Madani, head of the camp backed by supporters of rebels, told media sources.
Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures.
Stones and batons were wielded during the clashes in Change Square, epicenter of anti-regime protests since February and where a sit-in continues after Saleh last month signed the deal by which he will quit in February 2012.
The attackers used sticks to destroy a podium set up by peaceful rebels at the square and stoned the camp of hundreds of activists who reject the Gulf-brokered power transfer deal, witnesses said.
They also dismantled tents, one of which serves as a field hospital, the same sources added.
Al-Islah party, which made up the largest opposition grouping during Saleh's rule, signed the deal that provides immunity to the strongman, accused of corruption and whose forces and loyalists have killed hundreds nationwide.
The Gulf deal has been rejected by both the rebels and young protesters.
Rebel commander Abdulmalik al-Huthi, slammed the attack by "Al-Islah militia" against "revolutionaries opposed to the agreement," accusing them of seeking "not to bring the criminals to justice," in a statement he gave.
On the other hand, US Obama administration, will allow Ali Abdullah Saleh into the country for medical treatment, in a move eerily similar to the Carter Administration allowing the Shah of Iran to seek medical help.
The White House stressed they had not made the final decision, and listed a host of conditions for the visit. Saleh could not have an entourage, and could not make political statements from his hospital bed, according to US officials.
