By Mohamed Sudam and Mohammed Ghobari
Reuters

SANAA: Police and armed men in civilian clothes opened fire on anti-government demonstrators in the Yemeni cities of Taiz and Hudaida Monday, witnesses said, as a drive to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh gathered pace.
The attempt to suppress mounting protests inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia came amid signs that the U.S. is seeking an end to Saleh’s 32-year rule, long seen as a rampart against Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

In Taiz, south of the capital Sanaa, police shot at protesters trying to storm the provincial government building, killing at least 15 and wounding 30, hospital sources said.
“The regime has surprised us with this extent of killing. I don’t think the people will do anything other than come out with bare chests to drain the government of all its ammunition,” parliamentarian Mohammad Muqbil al-Hamiri told Al-Jazeera.

Television showed a row of men, apparent tear gas victims, lying motionless and being tended by medics on the carpeted floor of a makeshift hospital in Taiz.
In the Red Sea port of Hudaida, police and armed men in civilian clothes fired live rounds and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators marching on a presidential palace, medical sources said.

Three people were hit by bullets, around 30 were stabbed with knifes, and 270 were hurt from inhaling tear gas.
Later Monday, protesters said at least two demonstrators were shot dead and several wounded during evening rallies. “We expect the toll to rise,” one protester said by telephone.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department called the latest violence in Yemen  “appalling.”
As opposition forces stepped up their actions, Saleh again appeared defiant.
“Just as you gave us your confidence, we will respond to that. We will be steadfast like the mountains,” he told hundreds of tribesman who chanted their rejection of concessions.

There were signs of mounting U.S. pressure on Saleh to go. The New York Times said Monday Washington had “quietly shifted positions” and “concluded that he is unlikely to bring about the required reforms and must be eased out of office.”

The Obama administration has not so far made a public statement urging Saleh to step aside. Such calls were key in bringing an end to the rule of Tunisia’s Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.

Sources close to the talks have said Washington gave Saleh an ultimatum last week to agree on a deal negotiated by the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa to ensure a peaceful exit and transition of power, otherwise it would publicly call on him to step down.

Opposition sources say talks have stalled because Saleh is maneuvering to ensure he and his family do not face prosecution over corruption accusations raised by the opposition.

A diplomat in Sanaa said the focus for now was still on talks and public calls to stand down – which have only so far come from France – were premature. “It depends on developments in the coming days. This is one of the options that all capitals have if they want,” he said.

“At the moment, diplomatic parties are working behind the scenes to encourage an agreement on political transition between Yemeni parties. Other options are being kept at the moment in the drawer,” the diplomat said.
If Washington were to call on Saleh to go, “I’m not sure if he [Saleh] would immediately cave in,” he added.
Saleh’s apparent stalling prompted new protests, including one in the middle of the night.

Demonstrators organized a 2 a.m. march on a presidential palace in Hudaida in protest at a security crackdown on rallies in Taiz Sunday that doctors said killed two and wounded hundreds.
“They suddenly gathered around the province’s administrative building and headed to the presidential palace, but police stopped them by firing gunshots in the air and using tear gas. I saw a lot of plainclothes police attack them too,” a witness in Hudaida told Reuters by phone.

The governor of Taiz later denied that anyone had been killed there Sunday and Saleh blamed the violence on the opposition.
In the southern cities of Abyan and Dalea opposition forces ordered a general strike Monday that closed schools, shops and many government offices.

Life in some areas of the port city of Aden, seat of a separatist movement by southerners, also came to a halt in the civil disobedience campaign.
Gulf Arab countries have taken a wait-and-see approach, resisting efforts by Sanaa to entice them into mediation.
Foreign ministers meeting in Riyadh Sunday talked of some ideas to be put forward, though they backed off from describing them as an initiative.

“On Yemen, there are some ideas that will be addressed to the Yemeni sides. I don’t want to use the word mediation because now we are in a stage of feeling the pulse,” UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan said.