| SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's embattled president accepted an offer from the Saudi monarch to seek treatment in his kingdom after being wounded in a rocket attack, raising the possibility Saturday that he could leave the country after nearly four months of mass protests seeking to end his 33-year rule.
A flurry of conflicting reports about President Ali Abdullah Saleh's whereabouts and condition spread through the Middle East after Yemeni government officials and opposition tribal leaders said Saudi King Abdullah had mediated a cease-fire to end two weeks of deadly street battles and invited Yemen's ruler to seek treatment for burns and other wounds from the Friday attack.
Aides to Saleh said the president remained in the capital, which grew calm Saturday for the first time after days of fighting, apparently because of the cease-fire.
For months, Saleh has defied intense pressure from his powerful Gulf neighbors and longtime ally Washington to step down. He agreed to transfer power several times, only to step back at the last moment. Should he leave the country now, he might never return, given that large segments of the population and a powerful tribal alliance could engineer his ouster while he's gone.
The extent of Saleh's injuries has been a matter of intense speculation. When the rocket struck the mosque in his presidential compound and splintered the pulpit, he was surrounded by top government officials and bodyguards. Eleven guards died, and five officials standing nearby were seriously wounded and taken to Saudi Arabia.
The president delivered an audio address afterward, his voice labored, with only an old photo shown.
The Saudi king waded into the conflict after nearly four months of largely peaceful protests seeking to depose Saleh morphed into an increasingly bloody civil conflict. Past cease-fires have not held, and international diplomacy has so far failed.
Opposition tribesmen directly attacked Saleh for the first time when they landed the rockets on the mosque.
A secretary in Saleh's office and a ruling party official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters, said Saleh spoke to the Saudi monarch afterward.
While Saleh accepted the offer of treatment, the officials said, the president's plane had not left Sanaa airport Saturday night.
Sheik Mohammed Nagi al-Shayef, a tribal ally, said he met the president Saturday evening at the Defense Ministry compound in the capital.
"He suffered burns, but they were not serious. He was burned on both hands, his face and head," al-Shayef told The Associated Press.
He said Saleh also was hit by jagged pieces of wood that splintered from the mosque pulpit. About 200 people were in the mosque when the rocket landed.
Deputy Information Minister Abdu al-Janadi also said: "The president is still in Sanaa. He is in good condition. There is no reason to transfer him outside the country."
He told Al-Jazeera TV that bandages on Saleh's head for burns and scrapes prevented him from appearing on television as government officials had promised.
"He was targeted but God gave him a new life," al-Janadi said.
Through the pre-dawn hours Saturday, government and opposition forces exchanged rocket fire, damaging a contested police station. The rockets rained down on streets housing government buildings that had been taken over by tribesmen.
Since violence erupted in the city on May 23, residents have been hiding in basements as the two sides fight for control of government ministries and hammer one another in artillery duels and gunbattles, rattling neighborhoods and sending smoke billowing into the air.
The temporary calm also spread to the southern city of Taiz, where the Republican Guard brigade that had occupied the streets quietly left town and returned to base.
Taiz had been a focal point of anti-Saleh activism since the uprising began. The Republican Guard left Saturday without giving a reason after having violently cleared protest camps there last week.
An official from the Republican Guard's 33rd brigade said gunmen clashed with the brigade overnight, destroying three of their vehicles. Meanwhile, officers and prominent city residents pressured Brig. Gen. Jibrah al-Hashidi to stop opposing the protesters, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under military rules.
The brigade issued no official statement as other military groups have done when defecting to the opposition. But its returning to base is significant because it led a fierce crackdown on protesters earlier this week that killed at least 25 people, sparking international condemnation.
Late Saturday, the tribal leader whose fighters have been battling Saleh's forces in the capital accused them of not observing the Saudi-brokered cease-fire. Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, leader of the Hashid confederation, said Saleh's forces were reinforcing their positions.
"We are respecting what we agreed upon under the guidance of the Saudi monarch to stop the bloodshed of innocents and bring safety for citizens based on our desire to bring security and quiet back to the capital, which is living through a terrible nightmare that Saleh's regime has brought upon it," al-Ahmar said in a statement.
In Washington, the White House called on all sides to stop the fighting, which has killed more than 160 people in the last two weeks. More than 150 protesters have been killed in crackdowns by security forces since the uprising's start.
"Violence cannot resolve the issues that confront Yemen, and today's events cannot be a justification for a new round of fighting," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.
President Barack Obama's Homeland Security and Counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, discussed the crisis in Yemen with officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates during a three-day visit to the Gulf that ended Friday. He vowed to work with Yemen's powerful neighbors to stop the violence.
Washington fears the chaos will undermine the Yemeni government's U.S.-backed efforts to fight the country's active al-Qaida's branch, which has attempted a number of attacks against the United States. Saleh has been a crucial U.S. ally in the anti-terror fight, but Washington is now trying to negotiate a stable exit for him.
Germany said Saturday it had closed its embassy in Yemen "because of current developments."
Inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, protesters have been trying unsuccessfully since February to oust Saleh with a wave of peaceful protests that have brought out hundreds of thousands daily in cities across Yemen.
Now the crisis has transformed into a power struggle between two of Yemen's most powerful families — Saleh's, which dominates the security forces, and the al-Ahmar clan, which leads Yemen's strongest tribal confederation. The confederation groups around 10 northern tribes.
Al-Ahmar announced the Hashid's support for the protest movement in March, and his fighters adhered to the movement's nonviolence policy. But last week, Saleh's forces moved against al-Ahmar's fortress-like residence in Sanaa, and the tribe's fighters rose up in fury. |
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