BBC News with Marion Marshall
The security forces in the Yemeni capital Sanaa have opened fire with machine guns on tens of thousands of anti-government protesters, killing at least 25 people and injuring hundreds more. Witnesses said the police even used anti-aircraft weapons against the demonstrators who were moving towards the presidential palace. Jon Leyne reports.
The new
upsurge
in violence happened as the Yemeni opposition
stepped up
protests, calling on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to
hand over
power. Witnesses said tens of thousands, or by some accounts more than 100,000 opposition supporters came out onto the streets of the capital and a number of other towns and cities. As a huge crowd surged towards the presidential palace, witnesses described how the security forces opened fire with machine guns and even anti-aircraft weapons.
A BBC investigation has heard allegations of the abuse of African migrant workers in Libya by anti-Gaddafi forces. Interviews detailed a violent campaign of
intimidation
against the black migrant community with hundreds of men
imprison
ed accused of being mercenaries for Colonel Gaddafi, and women and girls beaten and raped. Ian Pannell heard from one of the victims.
In a particularly brutal case, 20 fighters allegedly broke into one house, searching for mercenaries. They beat the people living there, stole their possessions, dragged the father of the house away and then raped his 16-year-old daughter.