Yemeni opposition on Wednesday accused President Ali Abdullah Saleh of gearing up for military action to end the current unrest and called on defected troops and armed tribesmen to protect the anti-government process, Xinhua reported.
"President Saleh and his relatives are preparing for a military action to end months-long protest demanding Saleh to step down," Mohamed Qahtan, spokesman of the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties, told Xinhua.
"Saleh has decided to face the challenge of people who want him to resign, and here we ask the defected army forces and armed tribesmen who pledged to protect the revolution to fulfill their promises," said Qahtan.
He also made it clear that "all political efforts to ease Saleh from power have failed," adding that "the opposition's newly- formed National Council for Revolution Forces will hold an extraordinary meeting on Thursday to address the issue."
Witnesses and residents said forces affiliated to the government and the opposition were seen deployed largely in the capital Sanaa and other major provinces.
Meanwhile, thousands of anti-government protesters staged rallies Wednesday in some major cities, including Sanaa and the country's largest city of Taiz, to celebrate "the victory of the Libyan people," said witnesses.
The protesters have been staging rallies almost daily since late January to press for the ouster of Saleh.
Saleh and another 87 officials were forced to seek medical treatments in Saudi Arabia in early June after a bomb hit Saleh's presidential palace in Sanaa.
Yemeni Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar, who had recovered in Riyadh from wounds sustained in the June bombing attack, arrived in Sanaa Tuesday.
"The president and the other injured officials will come back to Yemen very soon," the state-run Saba news agency quoted Mujawar as saying.