Many thousands of protesters thronged the capital Sunday to demand that the two sons of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in hospital in Riyadh after a bomb blast, leave Yemen, an AFP correspondent reported.

"Ahmed, Khaled, leave! Follow your father!" the crowd chanted in streets around Change Square, epicentre of the anti-Saleh protest movement.

Saleh`s eldest son Ahmed commands the army`s elite Republican Guard, while his brother Khaled heads special forces units.

Saleh, 69, who has faced nearly six months of protests against his 33-year-long rule, has not appeared in public since the June 3 explosion that killed 11 people and wounded 124 others, among them senior officials.

In his absence, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has come under pressure from the parliamentary opposition and the West to assume power, while street protesters demand he form an interim ruling council.

The slogans "The revolutionaries have the legitimacy" and "Yemenis are free" were also chanted by the protesters on Sunday as security forces kept their distance. (*)

Source: ANTARA