Forces loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead two women and wounded six other people when they opened fire on a crowd of protesters in the city of Taez yesterday, medics said.

The 14-member commission will also oversee the withdrawal of gunmen from the streets in a bid to restore order

The protest was over an immunity clause in the Gulf-sponsored transition plan which Saleh signed last month to hand power over to his deputy, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.

One woman, “Taghrid Hammoud, died after being hit by a bullet, and six protesters, including two women, were also wounded by gunfire,” a medical official said.

A second woman, Rouia Shibani, 27, who was also taking part in the protest, was shot dead by a sniper near Al-Huriya (Liberty) Square, the epicentre of anti-regime protests in the city, the same source said.

The medic said that a 65-year-old among the wounded was in a serious condition.

The killings came a day after Hadi formed a military commission under the Gulf Cooperation Council agreement to oversee the restructuring of the security forces, many of which are controlled by Mr Saleh’s relatives.

The official Saba news agency said the 14-member commission would also oversee the withdrawal of gunmen from the streets in a bid to restore order in the country, which has been rocked by 10 months of anti-Saleh protests.

The killing of the two women raised to 33 the death toll since Thursday in shootings and bombings by government forces in Taez, south of Sanaa, in violence threatening to derail the fragile power-transfer deal. State media said on Saturday that a ceasefire was reached after Mr Hadi called for an end to the fighting between pro-Saleh troops and armed tribesmen who have thrown their support behind the mass protest movement.