Sana'a: Tanks and armoured vehicles have deployed in the Yemeni capital after a top army commander and close aide to the country's embattled leader announced he was defecting to the opposition.
Major General Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar is the commander of the army's 1st Armoured Division, units of which deployed Monday in a major square at the Yemeni capital, Sana'a.
Protesters have been camping out there as they call for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.
News of Al Ahmar's defection to the protesters' cause came one day after crowds flooded cities and towns across Yemen to mourn dozens of protesters killed Friday when Saleh's security forces opened fire from rooftops on a demonstration in Sana'a.
Yemen ambassador to Syria resigns
Abdul Wahhab Tawaf, Yemen's ambassador to Syria, resigned on Monday from his post and from Saleh's ruling party to support the opposition movement demanding Saleh's ouster.
"I am resigning after the massacre that happened at the Taghyir (Change) Square," Tawaf told Al Jazeera television by telephone, referring to Friday's killing of 52 anti-government protesters by sniper fire in central Sana'a.
Twenty people were killed in fighting over a north Yemen military site between Zaidi Shiite rebels, Yemeni troops and their tribal allies, military and tribal sources said on Monday.
The military sources said the fighting was for control of a strategic military installation at the entrance to the northern province of Al Jawf, which the rebels, also known as Huthis, have taken over.
"The battle began after noon on Sunday and continued until the evening," a tribal source said, adding various types of heavy weapons had been used in the fighting.
"The Huthis were able to gain complete control of the site, which had two tanks and a number of military vehicles in it," the tribal source said, adding there had been other clashes in the area in recent days.
A military aircraft was sent to attack the site but was shot down, killing the pilot, the tribal source said. Yemeni authorities on Sunday announced that "a military training aircraft" had crashed in Al Jawf.
Government forces have been engaged in sporadic fighting with the rebels in Yemen's north since 2004. A ceasefire between the rebels and government forces went into effect on February 12, 2010.
Protests calling for the ouster of Saleh have spread to the north. Tens of thousands of supporters of the rebel group protested on February 21 in the north Yemen city of Saada to demand Saleh's departure, a tribal leader said.
