Sanaa – Ali Rabea
US marines unit
Sanaa – Ali Rabea
The Yemeni Parliament expressed their refusal of any foreign military presence on Yemeni territories. It also demanded the departure of the US marines unit that arrived Thursday into Yemen after
demonstrators broke into the American embassy building in Sanaa in protest of an American film which insulted Islam and its Prophet Mohammed.
The Yemeni Parliament severely condemned the insults which the film conveyed and demanded the US to provide an official apology to Muslims, and punishment for all those who contributed to the production of the film.
In a statement it said: “Nobody accepts any foreign presence including military forces on the territories of the Yemeni Republic whether small or huge presence.”
The Parliament refused in its statement of attacking foreign embassies but asserted the right to peaceful protest away from violence. It stressed the importance of announcing the result of investigations carried out by the committee assigned by Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to look into the incident of breaking into the American embassy.
A US Marines unit arrived into Sanaa Thursday. Local military sources said that it had 60 soldiers to secure Washington’s embassy while the Pentagon announced that around 50 soldiers were sent. Local newspaper sources affirmed however, that equipment, armoured vehicles and cars belonging to US Marines arrived into al-Hadida Port, west of Yemen, amid political and popular anger at what protesters considered a military intervention and violation of national sovereignty.
The fury over the film resulted in five killings and more than 50 wounded on Thursday and Friday.
The US embassy in Sanaa still witnesses a state of huge security after Yemeni military forces and US Marines spread in its surrounding area for fear of renewed attempts to break into the embassy once again.