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Yemen’s Presidential Palace Attacked - Peter Lemkin - 04-06-2011
Salah survives rocket attack on Yemeni presidents residence
US News.Net
Friday 3rd June, 2011
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been wounded in a rocket attack on the presidential compound in the capital Sana'a.
Rumors initially swept the country that Salah had been killed in the attack however the president released n audio statement hours after the attack, partly to put down the speculation that he had died.
A government spokesman earlier told a news conference the president was receiving medical treatment at a military hospital for "scratches to his face."
Deputy Information Minister Abduh al-Janadi told reporters Saleh was in "good health," but cancelled immediate plans to speak to reporters or make a public appearance. The spokesman said Saleh will hold a press conference as soon as he heals.
Western media accounts quote an opposition report saying that Saleh was attending prayers at a mosque in the presidential compound at the time of the rocket attack, VOA News. No group has claimed responsibility.
Yemen's state news agency said three guards were killed and the imam leading the prayers was wounded. Other reports said several other high-ranking officials, including Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar, were also at the mosque.
The escalated violence has stoked fears of the country breaking out into civil war.
The United States White House strongly condemned the upsurge in violence in Yemen on Friday.
A State Department statement called for an immediate end to hostilities and fulfillment of an Arab Gulf peace plan that calls for Saleh's departure.
Residents in the capital remained barricaded behind closed doors as fighting raged in Sana'a after dusk.
Earlier Friday, clashes between President Saleh's forces and loyalists to an opposition tribal leader, Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, escalated with the destruction of the headquarters of an opposition TV station in Sana'a.
Reports said fighting in the capital had expanded into new neighborhoods, and opposition tribesmen were traveling to Sana'a to take part in the fighting. Government forces reportedly shelled al-Ahmar's tribal headquarters after the mosque attack.
The rising chaos is reportedly pushing the conflict closer to all-out civil war. Government troops are said to have killed 50 opposition members in fighting this week.
Yemen is engulfed by multiple conflicts, with street battles raging in Sana'a, popular unrest by anti-government demonstrators throughout the country and fighting against Islamist militants who have seized the southern city of Zinjibar.
In the southern city of Taiz, government forces and protesters clashed Thursday. At least 25 people have died in the violence in Taiz in the past few days.
U.S. envoy John Brennan, President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, left the U.S. Thursday to travel to Abu Dhabi in the UAE to continue talks on Yemen. He is seeking help to pressure President Saleh to accept a deal brokered by regional powers that would secure a peaceful end to his nearly 33-year rule.
The fighting in Sana'a broke out last week when pro-Saleh forces moved against al-Ahmar's compound in Hasaba, a district of the capital.
In March, the al-Ahmar family had announced that the Hashid confederation, the country's most powerful tribal alliance, would back the protest movement, but its armed fighters had avoided clashes with Mr. Saleh's forces.
Yemen’s Presidential Palace Attacked - Peter Lemkin - 04-06-2011
Latest reports has it that Saleh has second degree burns to his face and chest and a medium-size piece of shrapnel 3 cm from his heart - puncturing his lung and is about to undergo surgery. Whether he is in Yemen or S.A. is not sure, but most think he'd not dare leave, for fear he'd never be allowed back. What happens next is anyone's guess.
Yemen’s Presidential Palace Attacked - Peter Lemkin - 07-06-2011
Just in case anyone interested hasn't heard on the news, Saleh is in Saudi Arabia and underwent an operation to remove some shrapnel and treat burns. He has declared he will soon return, but others doubt he'll be allowed to - or if he does, that he'd long survive. It had to be an inside job with at least one insider knowing which room in the Palace he was in. Those that fired on the Palace are not known, but a disaffected part of the military or intelligence is likely.