Yemen army chiefs defect

RIVAL tanks deployed in the streets of Yemen’s capital after three senior army commanders defected to a movement calling for the ousting of the US-backed president, leaving him with virtually no support among the country’s most powerful institutions.

Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, commander of the army’s powerful 1st Armoured Division, was the most senior of the three commanders to join the opposition. He announced his defection in a message delivered by a close aide to protest leaders at Sanaa square that has become the epicentre of their movement.

Some of the tanks and armoured vehicles deployed in the square, where protesters have been camping out to call for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose forces opened fire from rooftops and killed more 40 demonstrators on Friday. Others were deployed at state TV, the Central Bank and the Defence Ministry.

Saleh, who has cooperated closely with a US-backed offensive against his nation’s branch of al-Qaida, looked to be far closer to what analysts increasingly have called inevitable: a choice between stepping down after 32 years in power or waging a dramatically more violent campaign against his opponents.

A senior opposition leader said contacts were under way with the president over a peaceful way out of the ongoing crisis. One option under discussion, he said, was for Saleh to step down and a military council takes over from him to run the country until presidential and legislative elections are held.

Saleh has now lost support from every power base in the nation.

He fired his entire Cabinet on Sunday ahead of what one government official said was a planned mass resignation, a series of ambassadors have quit in protest and Sadeq al-Ahmar, the chief of the Hashid tribe, said yesterday that he too was joining the opposition.

Regional TV stations reported that dozens of army commanders and politicians were joining the opposition, but there was no immediate independent confirmation.