Eight anti-government protesters in the Yemeni city of Taiz were wounded today when an assailant threw a hand grenade at them, opposition sources and witnesses said.
A car drove up to protesters, who are demanding an end to president Ali Abdullah Saleh's three decade rule, and one of the passengers threw a grenade out the window, a witness said.
"The car got close to the square and someone threw a bomb that exploded in the middle of the protesters, it was terrifying," he said, declining to be named.
Several ambulances rushed to Hurriya (Freedom) Square, where the Taiz protesters have camped out for days.
Protesters blamed the government, saying it was behind the attack, but said they would not retreat from the square.
"It's just shameful that the government would resort to these criminal tactics. But it won't scare off the protesters," a protester, who declined to be named, said.
At least 10,000 protesters were gathered in Hurriya Square, and similar numbers of Saleh loyalists were rallying in downtown Taiz, around 200km south of Sanaa.
Mr Saleh, a US ally against a Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing that has launched attacks at home and abroad, is struggling to end month-old protests across the impoverished country that are now erupting on a daily basis.
His cash-strapped government is also trying to defuse a southern separatist revolt and maintain a shaky truce with northern Shia rebels in the Arabian Peninsula state.
In a sop to protesters, Mr Saleh has promised to step down when his term ends in 2013 and not hand power to his son.
A coalition of opposition parties, which had laid on rallies that drew tens of thousands, has now agreed to talk to him, but smaller, more spontaneous protests have continued, organised by students and others using mobile text messages and Facebook.
Reuters