In a sign of what is at stake in Yemen if security further unwinds, Islamic militants seized control of a small weapons factory, a strategic mountain, and a nearby town in the southern province of Abyan, said a witness and security officials.
A day earlier, militants believed to belong to Yemen’s active Al Qaeda offshoot swept into another small town in the area called Jaar. In both cases, the militants moved in with no resistance because police had withdrawn weeks earlier in the face of challenges by antigovernment protesters.
Saleh, who has ruled for 32 years, is a key ally of the United States in battling Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which the Obama administration considers the top terrorist threat to the United States.
The Obama administration is concerned that the cooperation could be imperiled if Saleh departs. “If that government collapses or is replaced by one that is dramatically more weak, then I think we’ll face some additional challenges out of Yemen,’’ Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on ABC TV’s “This Week.’’
Saleh himself warned that “Yemen is a ticking bomb’’ and said that without him in power, the country would descend into civil war.
Saleh convened a meeting yesterday of hundreds of members of his Congress Party’s leadership committee. A party statement released afterward said the meeting affirmed that Saleh should remain in his position until his term ends in 2013.
Jordan
Jordanians yesterday mourned a 55-year-old man who died in a violent antigovernment protest two days earlier. Khairi Saad was the first person to die in nearly three months of unrest in Jordan.
The government insisted he was one of its supporters and that he died of a heart attack. But Saad’s brother said Saturday that he was among the protesters, and an Islamic opposition group said he was a follower of the Muslim Brotherhood and was beaten to death by police.
Thousands of supporters of Jordan’s King Abdullah II took to the streets of Amman, the capital, on Saturday to express their loyalty.
The 7,000 people sought to put on a display that would counterbalance scenes a day earlier when security forces and government supporters clashed with protesters seeking political reforms and new elections.
The Jordanian activists have not sought the ouster of Abdullah, but they are demanding the removal of the prime minister, creation of a more reformist government, the dissolving of what is seen as a docile Parliament, and the dismantling of the intelligence department.
