Yemen leader urges truce after troops kill protesters

Yemen's acting leader on Sunday urged foes and loyalists of President Ali Abdullah to call a truce, after Saleh's forces killed nine people demanding he be tried for the deaths of demonstrators over nearly a year of protests against him.    

Troops from what witnesses identified as loyalist units opened fire on tens of thousands of protesters approaching Saleh's compound in the capital on Saturday after a days-long march from the city of Taiz by protesters chanting "No to immunity!".    

They referred to a pledge to spare Saleh prosecution in exchange for giving his powers to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and letting a government including opposition parties lead Yemen to a February election to replace Saleh after 33 years.   

That government is to separate Saleh's forces from rebel army units and tribal militias they have fought in Sanaa, a key to a power transfer deal brokered by neighboring Gulf states to avert a civil war they fear will affect them.   

The state news agency on Sunday quoted Hadi as saying during a meeting with U.S. ambassador Gerald Feierstein that all sides "must commit ... to a truce and respect its rules forbidding escalation" that would threaten the transition deal.    

Washington long backed Saleh as a cornerstone of its "counter-terrorism" policy in Yemen, which includes the use of drones to kill alleged al Qaeda members. A CIA drone strike killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen linked to Al Qaeda's regional wing, earlier this year