Top army generals defect in Yemen (declare support for protesters, and move to protect them)

[cali]

Troops and tanks deploy in capital Sanna to protect anti-government protesters as three top generals
At least 52 people were killed in a bloody crackdown on protesters on Friday



Three top Yemeni army generals have declared their support for anti-government protesters seeking the resignation of the country''s president, Ali Abudullah Saleh.

Brigadier Ali Mohsen Saleh, the head of the north western military zone and the head of the first armoured division, said on Monday that he had deployed army units to protect the protesters.

Two more generals rallied behind Brigadier Saleh soon after.

Addressing a news conference, Brigadier Saleh said: "Yemen today, is suffering from a comprehensive and dangerous crisis and it is widespread.

"Lack of dialogue and oppression of peaceful protesters in the pubclic sphere, resulted in crisis which has increased each day.

<snip>

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/2011320180579476.html

[Scuba]

1. Nice. Hopefully another in a string of peaceful revolutions. n/t

[joshcryer]

2. Hmm, this happened in Libya 3 weeks ago.

Hopefully it has a better outcome than Libya did.

(And we don't call these generals fomented "rebellion" and everyone they protect "enemy combatants" like was said for Libya.)

[xchrom]

3. Recommend

[cali]

4. xchrom, you are the most inscrutable poster

might I say I've grown fond of you and your recs?

[sofa king]

5. I'm sure the SAS is collectively groaning.

It's worth pointing out that while our heavy-handed approach to Vietnam was failing, the British were enjoying some modest success in Aden (Yemen), largely through the efforts of a couple hundred SAS fighters who successfully armed and trained the local populations there to defend themselves.

At that time, the SAS was also spread thinly due to multiple crises in Aden, Vietnam, Korea and Sarawak. Now they're likely facing the same problem in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Libya.