in yemen, chaos. from sanaa:

 

lala:  all hell broke loose, crispy

 me:  describe!

 lala:  well, this morning right after sunrise prayer the security forces started shooting at people at the protest

live bullets and gas bombs which were later recognized as nerve agent gas and mustard gas

 me:  they said the biggest crowds ever were out yesterday. so this is the big crackdown??

 lala:  and there were snipers from the buildings that were evacuated last night

shooting at ppl

 me:  wait seriously on the gas? 'nerve gas'?!

 lala:  there was a good hour during which gun fire was non-stop, then it was on and off for a couple more hours

yeah, nerve gas, insecticide for ppl, makes u flip on ur back and twitch

thousands of cases of suffocation and serious burns

they killed several school students in Aden

 me:  american media does not seem to be reporting this!

 lala:  and snipers got a number of protestors in Taiz as well

 me:  fuck

 lala:  well, there's a civil war in libya, and japan is under water, what do they care about here?

a member of a big tribe from Marib was killed today

his tribe is promising revenge

and it's reported that thousands of tribal members are driving to sanaa armed right now

armed thugs are all over the place

i am a prisoner at home today

because some ppl from my neighborhood ARE pro-gov thugs

and are guarding eac exit/entrance point to the neighborhood in guns and sticks

they've been chasing down the protestors and beating them up

 me:  family ok?

so tribe-types are coming to invade sanaa and take out saleh?

 lala:  i certainly fuckin hope so!! i dont know if they wud be allowed in town though

all major cities have been surrounded by tanks for the whole past week

 me:  it is one of these chaotic situations where all rumors are swirling at once! how are communications internally? are you in touch with people on the streets?

 lala:  not that much

AlJazeera Live has a live broadcast from the square

we've had it on all morning

my uncle is coming in and out

gets us some news

 me:  ok i gotta tune in. nuclear meltdown in japan! right we are distracted.

 lala:  oh fuck

shit shit

i hear gunfire again

me:  what time is it there?

 lala:  1600

omg it's intense

 me:  oh shit. who is shooting at who, can you tell?

 lala:  u could tell it is from an elevated area

it's loud

fuck, this is a war zone

 me:  ohmygod. what is the name of your neighborhood? describe location within sanaa.

 lala:  we're about 5-6 blocks from the university square

 me:  i'm going to put this up on the blog, ok? people should have a sense of what's happening.

 lala:  east to the university

west to tahrir sq.

it's the ministry of justice area

lala:  the snipers are still in place

and they seem to shoot at every prayer time

when no one is looking

and more nerve gas bombs

 me:  sure it's not tear gas?

 lala:  nope

the protestors are convulsing like dying cockroaches

no tears

 me:  christ. is there any medical care?

 lala:  they have set up a volunteer hospital of sorts down in the sq

but several hospitals and volunteering to help too

many ppl are being sent to hospitals

my uncle and i put together a couple of informative pages about chemical bombs and how to react to them

so he could possibly distribute them so these kids know what to do

now everyone is saying

that the USG gave the pres the green light to do this

i told ppl about two weeks ago

after reading about the ambassador's statement

that the US supports dialogue, and that the president's initiative is good and shud be accepted

 me:  what did the ambassador say??

 lala:  that something bad will happen

coz on the same day

all embassies and foregin companies started sending their employees out of the country