Yemen has recalled its ambassador to Qatar, state news agency Saba announced on Saturday, after the Gulf state's call for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down stirred anger in Sanaa.

The ambassador was "recalled for consultations following remarks by ... (Qatari Prime Minister) Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani" on Gulf efforts to mediate in Yemen, a foreign ministry official said, quoted by Saba.

Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr said on Saturday that his supporters will resume their resistance to U.S. forces in Iraq if they do not leave as scheduled by the end of the year.

"If the Americans don't leave Iraq on time, we will increase the resistance and restart the activities of the Mahdi Army," Sadr said in a fiery statement read by a spokesman to thousands of followers in Mustansariyah Square in northeast Baghdad.

An Israeli tank round killed a Palestinian in Gaza early Saturday bringing to 12 the overall toll from the deadliest 24 hours of violence since a devastating war ended more than two years ago.

A truce declared by Palestinian armed groups unraveled even before it could take hold as militants fired dozens of mortar rounds and rockets into southern Israel and the military retaliated against Gaza.

Two people were killed and at least 18 wounded early on Saturday when Egyptian military police stormed the capital's Tahrir Square to disperse protesters, medical sources told Agence France Presse.

The medics could not say if the wounded had been hit by bullets, and the deaths have still not been confirmed.

The Syrian authorities will face up to armed groups firing indiscriminately on demonstrators and the forces of order, the interior ministry said in a statement released early Saturday.

"We will not allow confusion between peaceful demonstrations and (acts of) sabotage (aimed at) sowing discord, harming national unity and destabilizing the foundations of Syrian policy," said the statement published by the official SANA news agency.

Yemeni security forces shot dead two protesters and wounded dozens on Friday in the flashpoint city of Taez south of the capital Sanaa, witnesses said.

One witness said the two protesters were killed by gunfire, and that their bodies were taken to Safwa hospital.

At least 22 protesters were killed on Friday as anti-regime demonstrations and clashes with security forces raged around Syria, the head of the National Organization for Human Rights said, while the opposition's mouthpiece Sham News Network put the death toll at 40 in the southern city of Daraa alone.

The state-run hospital in Daraa has received the bodies of 40 protesters who were killed today by security forces, SNN reported.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast slammed on Friday caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri's recent position on Iran, which he said only serves U.S. and Israel's interests, reported Press TV.

Addressing Hariri, Mehmanparast said that with a proper understanding of the lessons of the popular uprisings in the Arab countries of the Middle East, "[you] should consider the criteria for ruling people as respecting their dignity and independence, as well as avoiding dependence on the West, particularly the U.S. and Zionism."

Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Friday rejected a plan for his exit offered by Gulf States trying to broker an end to bloody protests, in a speech broadcast on state television.

"Our power comes from the power of our great people, not from Qatar, not from anyone else. This is blatant interference in Yemeni affairs," Saleh told a massive crowd of regime supporters in Sanaa.

Thousands of Egyptians activists marched onto Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Friday to demand former regime officials be purged and put on trial, including ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Draped in Egyptian flags, Muslims were joined by Christians as they gathered for weekly prayers in a protest dubbed the "Day of Trial and Cleansing" to press the ruling military council on promised reforms and justice.