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40 Killed in Yemen Upon Saleh’s Return

At least 40 people were killed by government troops on the first day of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s return to the country. In an apparent effort to solidify control, soldiers and snipers opened fire on crowds of demonstrators assembled in a square in the capital Sana’a, mowing down their victims. Saleh’s chief rival, Gen. Ali Moshen Al-Ahmar, a formal loyalist who defected, has called on the West for help in defeating the president’s forces before the nation is plunged into civil war. The situation in Yemen is complicated by the presence of Al-Qa’ida which stands to gain from the instability and lack of clear lines of opposing forces. The United States has been trying to mediate a solution that would maintain pressure on Al-Qa’ida which has used the backdrop of internecine warfare to seize control of a number of towns in south Yemen.