At least two anti-government protester were killed and up to 60 others were wounded in a raid by Yemeni security forces against thousands of protesters demanding ousting of the country's president in southern province of Taiz on Sunday, witnesses said, Xinhua reported.
"The attack began when the protesters marched toward a police station in downtown the provincial capital city of Taiz to demand the release of their jailed colleagues," the witnesses said.
Doctor Hamoud Aqlan, the supervisor of the makeshift hospital told Xinhua that "two protesters were killed and more than 60 others were injured in the security forces' attack on the protesters, eight of whom were wounded with gunshots."
"The attack, in which security forces used live bullets and tear gas, was still ongoing as police snipers were taking positions on the rooftops of buildings near the epicenter of the sit-in, dubbed as Freedom Square," he said.
Since February, Yemen's major cities have faced almost daily clashes between police forces and anti-government protesters demanding an end to the 33-year rule of defiant President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in which hundreds of people were killed.
The impoverished Arab country has already been working on a ceasefire to end a five-day tribe rebellion in the capital Sanaa that killed at least 127 people, as government forces have been shelling militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida wing after they took over southern troubled province of Abyan on Saturday.