10 protesters reported killed in Yemen

At least 10 people were killed Saturday when police and soldiers fired on demonstrators in Yemen's capital, eyewitnesses said. Mohammed Al-Qubati, a medic, told CNN at least 38 people were wounded. He said protesters had been planning to march from Change Square in Sanaa, where a mass encampment has been in place for months, to the center of the city, and security forces were trying to stop them. "They shot continuously hoping to kill as many people as possible," Salman al-Nusairi, an activist, said, describing gunfire coming from rooftops. The protesters hope to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh. While Saleh hinted in a statement Oct. 8 that he is ready to step down, he has so far set no timetable. The Defense Ministry said Saturday seven suspected militants were killed Friday night in a U.S. drone strike. A security official told CNN one of them was Abdul Rahman Anwar Awlaki, 21, son of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric killed in a recent strike. On Friday, mass protests across Yemen called on the U.N. Security Council to push harder for Saleh's departure. But thousands of pro-Saleh demonstrators also rallied in Sanaa, Xinhua, the Chinese government news agency, reported. "We tell the U.N. Security Council that no one, including you, can force any resolution or sanction against our president who was elected in fair elections by all Yemeni people in 2006," Yehya Kasim, one of the pro-Saleh protesters, told Xinhua.