<p>Protesters outside Sanaa University, repeating slogans which have echoed around the Arab world since the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, chanted: “The people demand the downfall of the regime.” <br /><br />About 4 km across town, loyalists shouted support for a leader they said was holding the fractured and impoverished tribal country together. “The creator of unity is in our hearts. We will not abandon him,” they chanted. <br /><br />Seventeen people have died in the past nine days in a sustained wave of nationwide anti-Saleh protests galvanised by the fall of the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents. Saleh has said he will not give in to “anarchy and killing”. <br /><br />A US ally against the Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing that has launched attacks at home and abroad, the Yemeni leader is struggling to end protests flaring across the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state. <br /><br />He is also trying to maintain a shaky truce with northern Shi’ite Muslim rebels and contain a secessionist insurgency in the south against northern rule. In the city of Taiz, 200 km south of the capital, about 10,000 people staged an anti-government protest. <br /><br />Witnesses said police were present at both demonstrations in Sanaa to prevent either group marching to confront the other. <br /><br />Outside the university, Saleh’s opponents held an auction to raise money for their campaign, selling a car and a watch, which fetched 600,000 riyals ($3,000). Saleh supporters in Tahrir Square, many of whom arrived in buses, chanted “Yes to stability, no to chaos”.</p>
<p>Protesters outside Sanaa University, repeating slogans which have echoed around the Arab world since the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, chanted: “The people demand the downfall of the regime.” <br /><br />About 4 km across town, loyalists shouted support for a leader they said was holding the fractured and impoverished tribal country together. “The creator of unity is in our hearts. We will not abandon him,” they chanted. <br /><br />Seventeen people have died in the past nine days in a sustained wave of nationwide anti-Saleh protests galvanised by the fall of the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents. Saleh has said he will not give in to “anarchy and killing”. <br /><br />A US ally against the Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing that has launched attacks at home and abroad, the Yemeni leader is struggling to end protests flaring across the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state. <br /><br />He is also trying to maintain a shaky truce with northern Shi’ite Muslim rebels and contain a secessionist insurgency in the south against northern rule. In the city of Taiz, 200 km south of the capital, about 10,000 people staged an anti-government protest. <br /><br />Witnesses said police were present at both demonstrations in Sanaa to prevent either group marching to confront the other. <br /><br />Outside the university, Saleh’s opponents held an auction to raise money for their campaign, selling a car and a watch, which fetched 600,000 riyals ($3,000). Saleh supporters in Tahrir Square, many of whom arrived in buses, chanted “Yes to stability, no to chaos”.</p>