Another Day of Protests in Yemen - Tens of Thousands March

Article

SANAA, Yemen – Tens of thousands of protesters Thursday staged unprecedented demonstrations against Yemen's autocratic president, a key U.S. ally in battling Islamic militants, as unrest inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia spread further in the Arab world.

The West is particularly concerned about instability in Yemen, home of the terrorist network al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. U.S. counterterrorism officials are worried that Yemeni security forces will be more focused on protecting the government, allowing al-Qaida to take advantage of any diminished scrutiny.

Even though Saleh announced this would be his last term as president, the protesters want him out immediatley.

This particular protest, according to the article, was mostly peaceful except for one town, where police opened fire and injured one protester. From what I have read so far, the Yemen protests havent been engulfed in widespread violence, for the most part, (I dont believe it is as bad as Egypt at the moment) but there have been a few incidents here and there, one in particular where mortars were fired at protesters about a week ago. Im not sure of the numbers of dead or wounded at the moment.

On Thursday, they led tens of thousands in protests in seven towns and cities across Yemen, with chants of "Down, down, down with the regime!" and banners calling on the president to resign now.

In the capital of Sanaa, several thousand government supporters staged a counterdemonstration, carrying banners warning that the opposition is trying to destabilize Yemen. Military helicopters hovered in some areas, and there was a heavy security presence around the Interior Ministry and the Central Bank.

On the counter-demonstrations in the 1st above ex-text, I though Yemen was already pretty destabilized? Maybe some people do like way Saleh is running the country?

Wait,.... the article goes on to say this below -

The anti-government demonstration in Sanaa brought together young people, workers and women in black robes who initially planned to gather in downtown Tahrir (Liberation) Square, the same name of the site in downtown Cairo where Egypt's protesters have gathered daily since Jan. 25.

However, government supporters, including civil servants, pre-empted the protesters, taking control of the square first. One of the demonstrators, unemployed Iyad Nasser, said he and others had been paid to show up.

Then, the article goes on to say that the pro-government supporters went down to where the anti-government protesters were, and "scuffles" erupted.

Several dozen of Saleh's supporters headed to where the anti-government protesters had assembled, near Sanaa's university, and scuffles erupted. Police separated the two camps.

In the city of Aden, armored personnel carriers were seen trying to close down main streets to stop the protesters.

At the end of the article, it gives a brief description of other protests in Jordan, Algeria, and Syria.

I have to say, the alignment of all of these revolts across the Middle East is really insane. It seems to me that there must be something more to the story, but I don't know anything about the region so I don't know. I've read all about the Tunisian situation and what caused it but I doubt anyone could have predicted what would happen. I wouldn't be surprised if, after this wave of regime changes, we find a lot of Western companies with new found access to cheap labor, natural resources, and markets.