Anti-government protesters shout slogans during a demonstration to demand the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa. -Reuters Photo

SANAA: Troops loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh killed at least 17 people in an assault early on Saturday in the capital Sanaa, witnesses and a medic told AFP.

“Seventeen people were killed and 55 others were wounded” in the attack, said Mohammed al-Qabati, a medic at the field hospital in Sanaa's Change Square.

Some of those killed were civilians, while others were soldiers from dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar's First Armoured Brigade, Qabati told AFP.

Soldiers launched the attack a little after midnight on Friday, hours after Saleh's return from Saudi Arabia, where he spent three months recovering from injuries sustained during an attack on his palace on June 3.

Troops opened fire with guns and also shelled Change Square, the focus of anti-government activity since it was first occupied by demonstrators in January.

Snipers also targeted people from buildings around the square, witnesses said.

The latest violence brought the number of those killed to 37 since Friday, and to 132 since a fresh wave of violence hit the capital on Sunday.