Witnesses said police had fired shots into the air but were unable to control the crowds in the industrial town of Taiz, while in Sanaa protesters inspired by an uprising in Egypt vowed to march to police intelligence headquarters.
Police stood between around 500 anti-government protesters and a rival group of around 100 supporters of Saleh at Sanaa University, a frequent launchpad for demonstrations, to prevent skirmishes.
Anti-government protests gained momentum in recent weeks, sometimes drawing tens of thousands of people, and the threat of further turmoil prompted Saleh to offer significant concessions, including a pledge to step down in 2013.
The protests have turned to clashes in the last four days, with rival groups beating each other with batons and fists. On Sunday, police forcibly broke up a march in the capital.
But analysts say Yemen is not yet at the point of an Egypt-style revolt, and any upheaval would likely unfold more slowly, and perhaps with more bloodshed, in a heavily armed country where tribal allegiances run strong.
Protesters in Sanaa said they were demanding the release of activists arrested over four straight days of rallies, including around 220 held in Taiz, whom the opposition said had already been freed.
Saleh, who has ruled fractious Yemen for 32 years, postponed a visit to Washington on Sunday due to conditions in the region, according to a state news agency.
Human Rights Watch criticised police for what they described as unnecessary brutality that included using electroshock tasers against demonstrators.
“Without provocation, government security forces brutally beat and tasered peaceful demonstrators on the streets of Sanaa,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director of the US.-based rights group.
Although pro- and anti-government protesters have clashed in recent days, police had generally stayed out of the fray in Sanaa, but crackdowns have been stronger outside the capital.
Yemen is struggling to quell separatist rebellion in the south and cement a truce with Shi’ite insurgents in the north at the same time it is fighting a resurgent wing of al Qaeda based in Yemen.
Algeria lifts 19-year-old state of emergency
PARIS (Reuters) – The 19-year-old state of emergency in Algeria will end within days, Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said on Monday, brushing off concerns that recent protests in the country could escalate as in Tunisia and Egypt.
A state of emergency has been in force in Algeria since 1992 and the government has come under pressure from opponents, inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, to ditch emergency laws.
Several hundred protesters took to the streets in the capital Algiers on Saturday and opposition groups said they would demonstrate every weekend until the government is changed.
“In the coming days, we will talk about (the state of emergency) as if it was a thing of the past,” Medelci told the French radio station Europe 1 in an interview.
“That means that in Algeria we will have a return to a state of law that allows complete freedom of expression, within the limits of the law,” he said.
Recent protests had been organized by minority groups with limited support, the minister said, adding that there was no risk of a government overthrow as in neighboring Tunisia.
However, he suggested the government may be willing to make concessions, saying: “The decision to change the government lies with the president who will assess the possibility, as he has done in the past, to make adjustments, as he has done in the past.”
“Algeria is not Tunisia or Egypt,” he added.
The resignation on Friday of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and last month’s overthrow of Tunisia’s leader, have led many to ask which country could be next in the Arab world.
Widespread unrest in Algeria could have implications for the world economy since it is a major oil and gas exporter, but many analysts have said an Egyptian-style revolt is unlikely because the government can use its energy wealth to placate protesters.
Discontent with joblessness, poor housing conditions and high food prices sparked rioting in early January across the country, but there is so far no sign that this is coalescing into a political movement.
(Reporting by Vicky Buffery; Editing by Jon Hemming)
