Arab Regimes Under Siege

A Yemeni army officer reacts holding up his AK-47 as he and other officers join anti-government protestors demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday.

By MARGARET COKER
WSJ

A contingent of Yemen's key military commanders defected to the political opposition Monday, the most significant challenge yet to the ability of the country's president, a U.S. ally against al Qaeda, to hold on to power.

The development followed a bloody weekend crackdown on protesters that left dozens dead, as other countries in the region tipped toward instability. In Syria, residents of a town south of the capital demonstrated against the government for a fourth day, undeterred by protester deaths and the authoritarian regime's threats of crackdown.

In Yemen, the defections put President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the position of choosing between sending his elite units into battle to defend his authority or negotiating his own exit, officials from the government and the opposition said.

As night fell in the Yemeni capital of San'a, tanks from the Republican Guard were deployed around the presidential palace; nearby stood tanks from the army division commanded by Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the top general who withdrew his support for the leader earlier in the day.

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