Latest violence in Yemen is "appalling": U.S.

(Reuters) - The latest violence in Yemen in which police and armed men shot at anti-government protesters in the cities of Taiz and Hudaida is "appalling," U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Monday.
Speaking at his daily briefing, Toner sought to play down a New York Times report that the United States has in the last week come to the conclusion that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh -- a key U.S. counter-terrorism ally -- must go.
Regardless of its public posture, the United States does appear to be leaning toward the view that Saleh cannot hang on in the face of spiraling violence, defections of key generals and the opposition's consistent demands for his departure.
"It's appalling," Toner said of the latest violence. In Taiz, south of the capital Sanaa, police shot at protesters trying to storm the provincial government building, killing at least 15 and wounding 30, hospital sources said.
In the Red Sea port of Hudaida, police and armed men in civilian clothes fired live rounds and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators marching on a presidential palace, medical sources said. Three people were hit by bullets, around 30 were stabbed with knives, and 270 were hurt from inhaling tear gas.
Asked if the United States believed Saleh must go, Toner replied: "That's not necessarily a decision for us to make.
He said the United States was talking to the government and the opposition in the hope of achieving "a peaceful solution."
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Eric Walsh)