Sana’a protest urges government be purged of Saleh loyalists

Demonstrators have poured into the streets in Sana’a, demanding the government be purged of loyalists to former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, Press TV reports.

Chanting slogans against the loyalists to the former regime on Friday, the protestors vowed to continue their protests and bring all corrupt government officials to justice.

The protesters joined to mark the February revolution in 2011 when the Yemeni people stood against Saleh.

“February is the month of people’s revolution in which the young and elders took to streets to call for freedom, dignity and equality,” Gadah al-Gaderi, one protester, told Press TV.

Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years, stepped down in February 2012 under a US-backed power transfer deal in return for immunity, after a year of mass street demonstrations demanding his ouster.

His vice president, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, replaced him on February 25, 2012 following a single-candidate presidential election backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Yemenis continue to hold demonstrations to call for political restructuring of the country and to demand the dismissal of members of Saleh’s regime from their government posts.

During the Friday rally, the protesters also called for an end to Washington’s assassination drone attacks in the country.

The US regularly carries out assassination drone attacks in Yemen, which is located on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula and is among the poorest countries in the region.

Washington uses its assassination drones in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Somalia, claiming that they target the terrorists. The attacks, however, have mostly led to massive civilian casualties.

The United Nations has censured the US drone attacks as targeted killings, stressing that the raids flout international law. Reports, however, say that the CIA is seeking to expand its covert drone attacks in Yemen.