Huge rival protests split the Yemeni capital as security forces staged an unprecedented deployment in another Friday showdown on the streets between supporters and opponents of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Amid fears of an outbreak of violence, tens of thousands of pro-regime supporters waving flags and banners gathered in squares around Sanaa, passing through checkpoints set up by security forces kitted with guns and batons.

Yemen's human rights minister Huda al-Baan said she has resigned in protest from the government and ruling party after at least 52 people were killed in a sniper attack on demonstrators.

Baan said in a statement late Saturday that her resignation was to protest the "massacre" of demonstrators demanding the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power since 1978.

Two anti-regime protesters died in Yemen on Sunday, a day after police shot them in the head, a medic said, raising the death toll to seven from demonstrations against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The two succumbed to wounds after "being shot in the head" in the southern city of Aden, said the medic, adding four other demonstrators were in a critical condition after also being shot in the head.

Yemeni police firing live rounds and tear gas killed one person and wounded many more Saturday in an attack on anti-regime protesters camping at a main square in the capital.

The dawn assault forced back demonstrators who had breached the limits of a concrete barrier put up by police at Sanaa's University Square, where protesters have been staging a sit-in for almost three weeks.

One protester was shot dead and five wounded in clashes with Yemeni government supporters near the capital Sanaa's university campus on Saturday, an AFP correspondent reported.

The death, the first in Sanaa in a week of similar clashes, came as government supporters, armed with guns, batons and rocks, tried to break into the campus and students responded by hurling stones.

Anti-regime protesters and supporters of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh armed with daggers clashed in Sanaa on Wednesday, with at least four people wounded, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

Three journalists were also beaten up by Saleh supporters in the clashes near Sanaa University between students demanding the president's ouster and supporters of his ruling General People's Congress (GPC).

Tens of thousands of protesters massed on Thursday at Sanaa university for a "day of rage" against Ali Abdullah Saleh's rule, while a similar number of loyalists flooded a central square in support of the embattled Yemeni president.

With Saleh supporters, some of them armed, taking over Al-Tahrir square from Wednesday night, protest organizers were forced to change the planned venue of their demonstration.

Yemen's president has told parliament he will not seek another term in office or hand power to his son — an apparent reaction to protests in his own country that have been inspired by Tunisia's revolt and the turmoil in Egypt.

The U.S.-allied Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for nearly 32 years, spoke Wednesday to lawmakers in both houses of the assembly.

Thousands of Yemenis demonstrated in the capital on Thursday, calling on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to depart after being in power since 1978, Agence France Presse reported.

"Enough being in power for (over) 30 years," chanted protesters in demonstrations staged by the Common Forum opposition in four different locations in Sanaa.

A court in Sanaa on Monday sentenced to death a Yemeni accused of killing a Frenchman and handed down a 10-year jail sentence in absentia to radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi.

Hisham Mohammed Assem, who was given the death penalty by a Sanaa criminal court after being convicted of killing French energy contractor Jacques Spagnolo near Sanaa in October, said in court he will appeal the verdict.