Officers: Mutinies spread to 4 Yemen air bases

[January 23, 2012]  SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- Yemeni officers say that a wave of mutinies demanding the ouster of the country's air force commander has spread to four air bases.

A senior officer in the Yemen's largest air base of Al Anad in the southern Lahj province, Abdul-Qader Sufian, said Monday that the troops at his base were demanding the removal of Maj. Gen. Mohammed Saleh, half brother of outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Colonel Mohammed al-Qubati at the air base in the capital Sanaa says about 200 airmen were continuing a protest that they started Sunday, moving from the base to the nearby residence of Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The officers say that the garrisons of two more bases, at Taiz in the south and at Hodeida in the west, were also protesting.

[Associated Press; By AHMED AL-HAJ]

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