SANA, Yemen — Yemeni police armed with sticks and daggers beat back thousands of protesters marching Sunday through the capital in a third straight day of demonstrations calling for political reforms and the resignation of the country’s U.S.-allied president.
The protests have mushroomed since crowds gathered Friday to celebrate the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Yemen is one of several countries in the Middle East feeling the aftershocks of pro-reform uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
Police used truncheons to stop protesters, many of them university students, from reaching the capital’s central Hada Square. Witnesses said plainclothes policemen wielding daggers and sticks also joined security forces in driving the protesters back.
The Ministry of Interior called on people not to heed “suspicious calls for chaos” and to avoid rallies which “obstruct the course of daily life.”
