Snipers in Sanaa fired from rooftops at a protester camp, killing³ bystanders（旁观者） including a child, witnesses said.

 

Government forces also shelled areas held by troops loyal to the protesters.

 

The opposition⁴ has promised to carry on its campaign to oust⁵ President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

 

For months, thousands of people have been waging a campaign to depose⁶ Mr Saleh, who has ruled the country since 1978 and is currently in Saudi Arabia recovering from a bomb attack in June.

 

The opposition believes the government is deliberately⁷ orchestrating（精心组织） the violence to derail（出轨） any chance of agreement.

 

But a Yemeni minister strongly denied reports that the authorities had fired on peaceful demonstrators, telling the BBC government forces were being attacked by militants⁸ sympathetic to al-Qaeda. 

 

The US and EU nations were among members of the UN Human Rights Council who used a meeting in Geneva on Monday to urge Yemen's government to stop using force against protesters.

 

Meanwhile, as the violence intensified⁹, envoys¹⁰ from the UN and the Gulf¹¹ Co-operation Council arrived in Yemen, in a new attempt to negotiate a handover of power from Mr Saleh.

 

 

The last two days have seen the worst violence in the country for several months: on Sunday, 26 people were killed and many more injured as they marched towards the presidential palace in Sanaa, the capital.

 

But protest leaders issued a rallying cry urging more demonstrations¹² on Monday, in which at least 27 people died as security forces once again opened fire on civilians¹³.

 

Reports say snipers began firing at a protest camp shortly after leaders of the demonstrations had begun to use loud-hailers to urge more action.

 

The snipers killed several people - among them a child who was unconnected with the protests - activists said.

 

The boy's father told the Reuters news agency: "I stepped out to get some food and left my two boys in the car and I heard the older one scream. The little one was shot straight through the head."

 

In another part of the city, a firefight broke out between government troops and soldiers loyal to the protesters.

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