Massive protests demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh took place across Yemen on Sunday, as the opposition joined a Gulf Arab meeting in Riyadh to plan for the leader's departure.
Security forces were deployed heavily in Sanaa where hundreds of thousands of men and women took to the streets in protest at Saleh's call for an end to men and women demonstrating together against the regime and calling for his ouster.
But clashes soon broke out when security forces opened fire and shot tear gas grenades at protesters, leaving one injured and 25 others suffering from breathing difficulties, according to medics at a field hospital there.
Protesters also took to the streets in the cities of Taez and Ibb, south of Sanaa, and the Red Sea city of Al-Hudaydah, the organisers said.
"We want to overthrow the regime and to bring the assailant to justice," read their banners.
The demonstrations came as foreign ministers of the oil-rich Gulf Arab monarchies were to meet a delegation from the poverty-striken country's opposition in Riyadh, who will ask for clarification on the Gulf initiative on Saleh's departure.
The Common Forum, an alliance of the parliamentary opposition, has made Saleh's departure a prerequisite for any political settlement, while the Gulf Cooperation
Council's bid to resolve the crisis calls for him to hand over power to his vice-president. Saleh's office has said in response to the mediation bid of the six-nation GCC that he has "no reservation about transferring power peacefully and smoothly within the framework of the constitution".
More than 125 people are estimated to have been killed since protests calling for Saleh's ouster erupted in late January, inspired by uprisings which toppled long-time rulers in Tunisia and Egypt.
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