Snikskyttere på takene drepte minst 40 demonstranter i Jemens hovedstad Sanaa fredag. Titusener marsjerte i gatene og lot seg ikke skremme.

Skytingen var planlagt. Fluktveiene var sperret med brennende bildekk.

Folk ble så rasende at stormet noen av husene hvor snikskytterne holdt til og dro dem ut å gaten. De var kledt i spesialstyrkene beige uniformer.

Presiden Ali Abdullah Saleh lot som om det ikke var hans folk og sa han ville gi ordre om en granskning.

Skytingen er meget problematisk for president Barack Obama. USA gir 250 millioner dollar i støtte inneværende år, det meste til kampen mot terror. Men en slik morderisk framferd gjør samarbeidet vanskelig.

Witnesses said the snipers wore the beige uniforms of Yemen’s elite forces and that others were plainclothes security officers. President Saleh denied at a press conference that government forces were involved and said he ordered the formation of a committee to investigate.
The bloodshed failed to dislodge the protesters, who stood their ground around the square, hurling stones at security troops and braving live fire and tear gas.
Throughout the weeks of unrest, security forces and pro-government thugs have used live fire, rubber bullets, tear gas, sticks, knives and rocks against the protesters, who have only grown in number in Sanaa and in many other cities around the nation. The protesters say they won’t go until Saleh does.
«They want to scare and terrorize us. They want to drag us into a cycle of violence — to make the revolution meaningless,» said Jamal Anaam, a 40-year-old activist camping out in the plaza that the protesters call «Taghyir Square» — Arabic for «Change.»
«They want to repeat the Libyan experiment, but we refuse to be dragged into violence no matter what the price,» he said.
Friday’s violence showed the government of Saleh and his family is increasingly worried about losing power, said Gregory Johnsen, an expert on Yemen at Princeton University.
«He has been in power for more than three decades and he’s falling back on what he knows best, which is increasingly violent methods.»
The tactic is unlikely to work, he predicted.

From rooftops, snipers kill 40 Yemeni protesters