Live Blog: Middle East Protests April 9

Live Blog: Middle East Protests April 9

• Timestamp: 

  12:49am

  That's it for our Middle East protest blog for April 9. You can continue following events on Sunday on our April 10 live blog.

• Timestamp: 

  9:45pm

  YEMEN - Al Jazeera's correspondent in Sanaa reports:

  "We are hearing that there have been at least 200 injured [in Sanaa] according to one medical source, and around 15 of those injuries are form live ammunition."

  "We have reports [in Taiz] of over 500 people injured, 40 of those from live ammunition and at least five people are in critical condition. "

• Timestamp: 

  9:04pm

  EGYPT - More than 1,000 protesters in  Tahrir Square vowed on Saturday to stay overnight in defiance of the military after a protester was killed the night before when soldiers dispersed a similar sit-in.

• Timestamp: 

  8:04pm

  YEMEN - President Ali Abdullah Saleh is facing increased protests at home, and additional pressure from the international community, after some countries have also called for change in Yemen.

  Al Jazeera's Caroline Malone reports:

  
  

• Timestamp: 

  8:02pm

  BAHRAIN - A supporter of Bahrain's anti-government movement, Rashid Zakaria Hassan, was found dead in police custody on Saturday, the AP reported.

  He was detained April 2 on charges of "inciting hatred, publishing false news, promoting sectarianism and calling for overthrowing of the regime".

  His body was found in a detention facility and a medical examiner determined that he died of complications from sickle-cell anemia. 

  The opposition party, Al-Wefaq, said the death occcured in "mysterious circumstances".

• Timestamp: 

  8:00pm

  EGYPT - At the news conference in Cairo, given by Egypt's ruling military council, army members spoke about Friday's violence at Tahrir Square.

  General Adel Emara, a member of the Armed Forces Supreme Council said:

  We would like to confirm to all of you that we didn't shoot a single shot .. didn't shoot a single shot from any of the armed forces that were present at Tahrir Square.

  General Ismail Etman, also a member of the Armed Forces Supreme Council said:

  Most of the injuries were due to stone throwing because some of our forces mingled in the midst of the people but we did not hit anybody. We didn't use force. And all the films and filming that has been on screens didn't prove any involvement from the armed forces against the civilians.

• Timestamp: 

  7:35pm

  EGYPT - The ruling military council held a news conference, following renewed protests that overtook Cairo's Tahrir square on Friday and Saturday.

  They said the army had dispersed the protesters peacefully and did not fire a singe live shot. They acknowledged that one person had been killed.

  The army spokesman said more than 40 people had been detained from Tahrir Square, including four foreigners and eight who were dressed in military uniform.

  Our correspondent in Cairo, Mike Hanna, said:

  The assumption here that these [eight in military uniform] were in fact the army officers who had joined the demonstration on Friday and who had sought refuge in the square overnight and who would have been the main aim of the army operation overnight.

• Timestamp: 

  7:14pm

  YEMEN - Al Jazeera's special correspondent in Sanaa has said that riot police with batons were out in force in the capital.

  The streets were littered with rocks and gas canisters, as police confrontations with tens of thousands of anti-government protestors continue in the capital. 

• Timestamp: 

  7:00pm

  EGYPT - The country's health ministry has confirmed the death of at least one person following clashes between protesters and the military. And hundreds of soldiers stormed Tahrir square, after demonstrators formed a human chain to protect several army officers who had joined them. 

  Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna has this report from Cairo:
• Timestamp: 

  6:39pm

  EGYPT - The country's ruling military council has decided to change some of the provincial governors appointed by deposed President Hosni Mubarak, state television reported on Saturday, in a concession to reformist demands for more change.

• Timestamp: 

  6:18pm

  YEMEN - Anti-government Yemenis women pray during a demonstration in Sanaa.

  

  [Image by AFP]

• Timestamp: 

  6:09pm

  EGYPT -  At a news conference in the capital. Egypt's ruling military council said it would clear protesters from a central Tahrir square with "firmness and force" to allow life to return to normal.

• Timestamp: 

  6:05pm

  YEMEN - Read our latest news report from Syria on the Al Jazeera website here

• Timestamp: 

  4:30pm

  EGYPT - Two people were killed and 18 wounded when troops and police stormed Cairo's Tahrir Square to break up a demonstration demanding the ouster of the country's de facto military ruler, medics said.

• Timestamp: 

  4:24pm

  YEMEN - Al Jazeera's special correspondent in the capital Sanaa was stopped and searched in the midst of the ongoing protests there:

  It has just been absolute chaos in the last few few hours here in the capital. We were just - me and the team - out in the streets, not far from the the [Change] Square probably between the main square and the presidential palace. There were hundreds of people who had left the square, pro-democracy protesters and they were just marching in the street and out of nowhere tens of police and men who had their heads covered with balaclavas and in army unifrom began to fire tear gas at the crowd, a lot and lot of teargas.The crowds as we could witness it were just chanting they were just walking through the street, it was a peaceful demonstration, there were no rocks being thrown. It just seemed to come out of nowhere.

  We were trying to film some of this going on, some of the teargas going on.. and then lots of men holding guns and lots of other people just wearing civilian clothes came towards me. They took my phone, they started shouting saying that I was a spy, and that i was filming..the soldiers told me that I was not allow to film. They took things off me, they searched me, they held the gun to my stomach. and it was a very threatening environment. Then eventually after about 10 minutes of searching me and taking my phones, they let me go and we were able to get to a safer location now.

• Timestamp: 

  4:15pm

  SYRIA - Read our latest news report from Syria on the Al Jazeera website here.

• Timestamp: 

  3:41pm

  SYRIA - Al Jazeera's Rula Amin reports from the capital, Damascus:

  Yesterday (Friday) was a big day and probably the protests yesterday were the most widespread since they began less than a month ago.

  In Daraa there is heavy security and army presence. People are telling us thousands are expected to take part in the funerals of those who were killed and they insist on their version of events that it was the security forces who shot at their sons. what the government is saying is that it has its own forces being shot at.They say about 19 policeman and security members were killed during the clashes in Daraa and they accuse armed gangs..

  The government has been clear in asking people not to help these armed gangs, and to tell the security forces on their hide-abouts. They made it very clear, they warned people that there won't be any tolerance for any kind of attempt to shoot at the security forces.

• Timestamp: 

  2:03pm

  SYRIA - Syrian security forces opened fire on mourners near the old Omari mosque in the southern border city of Daraa following a mass funeral for dead pro-democracy protestors, witnesses told Reuters.

  Security forces also used live ammunition in the early hours of Saturday to disperse a pro-democracy protest in Latakia, residents said.

• Timestamp: 

  2:01pm

  EGYPT - Protesters in cairo's Tahrir Square yesterday held (L-R) Yemeni, Syrian and Egyptian flags in support of anti-regime uprisings sweeping the region:

  

  [Image by AFP]

• Timestamp: 

  1:50pm

  SYRIA - The editor of Syrian government daily Tishrin said she had been sacked over remarks to Al Jazeera criticising security forces for firing on anti-regime protesters.

  Samira al-Masalma told the AFP she had been replaced by the paper's business editor, Munir al-Wadi.

  On Friday, she told Al Jazeera there had been a "violation of the rules barring the forces of order from firing on protesters," and that anyone who had done so "should be punished."

• Timestamp: 

  1:46pm

  SYRIA - A local rights group, the National Organisation for Human Rights, said in a statement that 30 people were killed in the southern city of Deraa, the epicentre of protests.

  Three others were also killed in the central city of Homs and another three in Harasta, a Damascus suburb, as well as one in Douma.

• Timestamp: 

  12:08pm

  OMAN An activist who "instigated riots" in the city of Sohar earlir this month will face trial with 25 others for violent conduct, the chief prosecutor says.

  yesterday, security forces sealed off the site of violent clashes that left one dead on April 1 and stopped worshippers from attending Friday prayers to prevent another protest.

• Timestamp: 

  11:39am

  EGYPT The health ministry says one person was killed and 71 injured after the army dispersed a protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square yesterday. Activists have been reporting a higher death toll.

• Timestamp: 

  11:25am

  BAHRAIN There have been renewed calls for protests in the Gulf nation, when the majority Shias are complaining of discrimination by the ruling Sunni dynasty. As part of a government crackdown on dissident, security forces have arrested Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, a prominent human rights activist.

  Zeinab Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, his daughter, told Al Jazeera that police took him from her house at around 2am this morning.

  They broke the door of the apartment. My father didn't resist at all, he went to them calmly but straight away a policeman told him, 'Down, down, get on the floor' ... They dragged him down the stairs and started beating him.

  "They did not give any reason ... They were beating him very severely, on the ground, maybe four or five of them, kicking him and hitting him in the face.

• Timestamp: 

  10:43am

  EGYPT One of the lorries set ablaze overnight in Tahrir Square:

  
  [Reuters]

• Timestamp: 

  10:15am

  EGYPT Our correspondent in Tahrir Square, Mike Hanna, says the crowds there are swelling. There's no presence of security forces at the moment. Regarding the reports of two deaths in the overnight violence, he says one rumour being floated is that those killed were actually soldiers attempting to make arrests.

• Timestamp: 

  10:09am

  SYRIA Thousands are expected to attend funerals later today for those killed in Daraa yesterday. There's a high presence of security forces in the city, according to residents.

• Timestamp: 

  9:46am

  EGYPT Hospital sources say two people were killed in Tahrir Square yesterday. However, an army's spokesman told Al Jazeera there were "no deaths. We as armed forces didn't receive any reports from hospitals or any official source that anyone was killed."

• Timestamp: 

  9:00am

  EGYPT The armed forces are accusing tycoon Ibrahim Kamel, a senior member of the former ruling party NDP, of orchestrating yesterday's violence in Tahrir Square. In a statement, they're demanding the arrest of him and his aides over "incitement and thuggery".

• Timestamp: 

  8:40am

  SYRIA Activists on social network sites are calling for daily protests after yesterday's violence. Until now, demonstrations have largely been confined to Fridays.

• Timestamp: 

  8:15am

  YEMEN Sanaa has called home its ambassador from Qatar for consultation after Qatar's prime minister said Gulf states had a plan for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

  "The ambassador is being withdrawn for consultations," a foreign ministry official told Reuters.

  Saleh initially accepted an offer by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states to hold talks with the opposition but on Friday, he told tens of thousands of supporters in the capital: "We don't get our legitimacy from Qatar or from anyone else ... we reject this belligerent intervention."

  Five protesters were killed in clashes with security forces in the southern city of Taiz on Friday.

• Timestamp: 

  8:00am

  EGYPT The military says in a statement on Facebook that there were no deaths in last night's violence in Tahrir Square. However,  protesters tell Al Jazeera's Adam Makary that at least one or two were killed.

• Timestamp: 

  7:24am

  EGYPT Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna gave this update from Cairo's Tahrir Square about the clashes which happened overnight:

  There were some few thousand people in the square overnight ... They had with them a number of army officers who had joined the demonstrations, against the instructions of the military authorities. Protesters attempted to protect these officers when the military police and other army units moved in overnight. They were dispersed by tear gas, and perhaps rubber coated steel bullets. The exact details of what happened cannot be confirmed, neither can the number of injuries.

  "However, those army officers were taken away, we do not know where they are being detained at the moment.  

  "What added fuel to the flames as far as the military is concerned is the fact that seven of its officers were with the demonstrators in the square. It clearly took this as a direct challenge, having issued orders that no soldier were to take part in the demonstration, this scene was a particularly affront to the military, and clearly this added an edge to whatever actions they did."

• Timestamp: 

  7:14am

   

  SYRIA The official SANA news agency says 19 members of the security forces were killed by "armed groups" in Daraa yesterday, while activists say dozens of protesters were killed by security forces.

  Our correspondent Rula Amin in Damascus says there are rumours that some family members of people killed in protests could have carried guns and aimed at security forces. Al Jazeera can't verify these reports at the moment as access to information is limited and it's hard for journalists to get into Daraa.

   

• Timestamp: 

  5:40am

  EGYPT Al Jazeera's Adam Makary in Tahrir says thousands of people have now gathered in the square, saying they won't leave until they've "reclaimed the square". Makary says he's seen some protesters with injuries from the clashes earlier this morning but no casualties have been confirmed.

• Timestamp: 

  5:00am

  EGYPT Twitter user yj787 has posted this picture from Tahrir Square this morning. Cars have been set ablaze nearby, that's probably where the smoke in the background is coming from.

  

• Timestamp: 

  4:36am

  EGYPT Photographer David Degner posted pictures from Tahrir this morning.

• Timestamp: 

  4:30am

  EGYPT A witness tells Al Jazeera that a few hundred protesters have re-gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square this morning after military police dispersed a demonstration at around 3am local time.

• Timestamp: 

  4:15am

  SYRIA US President Barack Obama has criticised the the Syrian government's latest crackdown in which at least 27 people were killed in the southern city of Daraa yesterday.

  I strongly condemn the abhorrent violence committed against peaceful protesters by the Syrian government today and over the past few weeks. I also condemn any use of violence by protesters.

  "Furthermore, the arbitrary arrests, detention, and torture of prisoners that has been reported must end now, and the free flow of information must be permitted so that there can be independent verification of events."

• Timestamp: 

  4:00am

  To find out what happened yesterday, check out Friday's live blog.