SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni authorities arrested dozens of soldiers and military officers Friday for joining anti-government protesters, a military official said, in an attempt to halt defections chipping away at a critical line of defense for the embattled president.
A brutal crackdown on more than two months of protests — including deadly sniper attacks — triggered a wave of key figures to abandon President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is clinging to power after 32 years ruling over the fragile country on Arabia’s southern edge.
Other than military figures, the defectors include ruling party members, lawmakers, Cabinet ministers, top diplomats and even Saleh’s own tribe.
In comments to supporters Friday, Saleh ridiculed them and other protesters as "cowards" and "renegades."
A military official said Friday’s arrests targeted several senior officers and dozens of soldiers.
He would not name any of them or give other details.
The arrests were carried out after a demonstration against the president by dozens of soldiers and airmen at the Anad air base in the southern Lahj province on Tuesday, said the official, a colonel who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid reprimand for releasing the information.
Two people were killed in new protests that broke out across the country on Friday, including 15-year-old Abdel-Hamid Mohammed, who was struck in the eye by a bullet and bled to death, said a medical official in the northern province of Hagga.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to release the information.
The other was a soldier from the Republican Guard, a key force that remains loyal to Saleh and is controlled by his son, Ahmed.
The soldier was killed in clashes with protesters backed by armed tribesmen in Marib, the main city in an unruly province east the capital that is also a stronghold of Yemen’s active al-Qaida offshoot, said tribal chief Jaabal Tuaiman.
Demonstrating the power of Yemen’s armed tribes, the crowds in Marib seized two tanks and set fire to two others as well as a number of other military vehicles, said a military officer, speaking by telephone on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
None of the military personnel arrested Friday were from the 1st Armored Division, the most important of the military units to defect. Its commander, Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, was a Saleh confidant who joined the uprising on March 21.
He and several other top army commanders have deployed their tanks in the streets of the capital, Sanaa, to protect protesters.
Other arrest sweeps have targeted civilian protesters.
Among them were two women seized Tuesday by female security agents and forced into a black car that had no license plates but displayed a government symbol on its rear window, said Majed al-Mazhaji, an activist and leading member of the opposition in the capital.
Yemen’s protests, which began in early February, have channeled anger at the country’s grinding poverty, government corruption and the widespread belief that the president was setting his son Ahmed up to succeed him.
Their demands quickly escalated to include Saleh’s immediate departure.
The government crackdown has killed nearly 130 protesters, according to Yemeni rights groups.
A group of Gulf Arab nations, including powerful neighbor Saudi Arabia, is trying to broker an end to the crisis.
A draft proposal calls on Saleh to hand over power to a successor of his choice and leave within a month, safe from the possibility of prosecution.
Neither side has accepted the proposal.
Saleh, who early on in the unrest pledged not to run for re-election or set up his son to replace him, is insisting on his constitutional right to serve out his term, which ends in 2013.
In the capital and elsewhere, hundreds of thousands chanted against Saleh Friday.
Opposition activist Walid al-Ammari said the new demonstrations, with the participation of huge number of women, were "a message to this ruler to step down immediately without any promises of immunity from trial."
Outside the presidential palace in Sanaa, a large crowd of Saleh’s supporters wore loyalists badges depicting the president.
Addressing his supporters, Saleh repeated his refusal to leave office right away.
"We reject toppling democracy and legitimacy, but we welcome the Gulf initiative and we will deal with it positively according to the constitution," he said.
Saleh described his opponents as "dilapidated, corroded, renegade and coward elements," vowing that "we will confront them with steadfastness."
A Muslim prayer leader addressing worshippers in the capital seized on Saleh’s repetition of the word "legitimacy" and asked "what legitimacy is this man talking about?"
"Today’s legitimacy is the revolution and not the constitution."
