Tanks deploy in Yemen capital as top general defects: "SANAA (AFP) – Tanks were deployed outside the presidential palace in Yemen on Monday, as a top general announced his allegiance to the protest movement seeking to oust President Ali Abdallah Saleh from power.
Tanks took up positions in key locations across Sanaa including at the presidential palace, the central bank and the ministry of defence, an AFP correspondent saw.
The deployment came as General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, an armoured infantry division commander, announced that he had joined the 'revolution' along with other senior officers.
'The crisis is getting more complicated and it's pushing the country towards violence and civil war,' he said in a statement broadcast by Al-Jazeera television.
'According to what I'm feeling, and according to the feelings of my partner commanders and soldiers... I announce our support and our peaceful backing to the youth revolution.
'We are going to fulfil our duties in preserving security and stability.'
Ahmar is the most senior military officer to pledge support for the opposition, which has been agitating for weeks to end Saleh's 32-year rule over the impoverished, tribal country."
Monday, March 21, 2011
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