SANAA, Yemen – Three Yemeni army commanders, including a top general, defected today to the opposition calling for an end to President Ali Abdullah Salehs rule, as army tanks and armored vehicles deployed in support of thousands protesting in the capital. With the defection, it appeared Salehs support was eroding from every power base in the nation — his own tribe called on him to step down, he fired his entire Cabinet ahead of what one government official said was a planned mass resignation, and his ambassador to the U.N. and human rights minister quit.
All three officers who defected Monday belong to Salehs Hashid tribe. A Hashid leader said the tribe, eager to keep the presidents job for one of its own, was rallying behind one of the men, Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, as a possible replacement for Saleh. The leader spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. Al-Ahmar, the most senior of the three officers, is a longtime confidant of Saleh and commander of the armys powerful 1st Armored Division. Units of the division deployed Monday in a major square in Sanaa where protesters have been camping out to call for Saleh to step down.
Salehs crackdown on a monthlong uprising against his rule has grown increasingly violent in recent days — suggesting he is becoming more fearful that the unprecedented street protests could unravel his three-decade grip on power in this volatile and impoverished nation.