As Yemen's military focuses on controlling protesters calling for the president's resignation, Islamic militants are making inroads, seizing control of a weapons factory and battling security forces in the mountains. Saturday, they took control of the town of Jaar, while in another province suspected al Qaeda gunmen killed seven soldiers, wounded seven others, and made off with an armored vehicle. Al Qaeda has seized towns in Yemen before, but security forces always pushed them back. Now, however, security forces are busy with protesters calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in an interview with This Week, said the U.S. has “had a lot of counterterrorism cooperation from President Saleh” and that the fall of his government would be "a real problem."
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