A battle for hearts and minds took place in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a today as major demonstrations both against and in support of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime were held within a few miles of each other. Yemen's opposition coalition went ahead with nationwide demonstrations in defiance of a plea from Saleh yesterday to freeze all planned protests, rallies and sit-ins. Around 20,000 protesters, most of them young men, occupied three major roads around Sana'a University in some of the biggest anti-government protests Saleh has faced in his 32-year rule. Large-scale protests also took place in other cities across Yemen, including Ibb and Taiz. "Together we fight against poverty, corruption and injustice," the protesters at Sana'a university chanted, between intermittent bursts of music and speeches delivered by opposition politicians from Yemen's Islamist, socialist and Nasserite parties. Despite being billed as a "day of rage", the opposition protests went off peacefully. Soldiers watched from the rooftops as students wearing pink bandanas in reference to the uprising in Tunisia formed a human wall around the protesters to see off potential clashes.