Sanee, June 05: A precarious calm returned to Yemen’s capital on Saturday as President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed to hit back after he was wounded in shelling of his compound and a top general defected to the opposition.
Sporadic shelling and rocket fire rattled Al Hassaba district of northern Sanaa where dissident tribesman Sheikh Sadiq Al Ahmar, locked in deadly battles with Saleh’s troops, has his base, witnesses said, Agence France-Presse reported.
They said residents were fleeing amid water and electricity cuts.
The clashes left one person killed and dozens wounded, a medical official said. Later on Saturday, an AFP correspondent reported a lull in the fighting.
A source close to Sheikh Sadiq said the powerful tribal chief was “committed to a ceasefire based on mediation efforts led by Saudi King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan Ben Abdul Aziz despite the continuous shelling” by Saleh forces.
Saleh himself, after four months of protests against his rule, was “stable” in a Sanaa hospital, a medic told AFP a day after the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) said he was “lightly wounded in the back of the head”.
His regime blamed the presidential compound attack on Sheikh Sadiq, AFP reported.
But Reuters reported that Saleh was heading to Saudi Arabia on Saturday for medical treatment, quoting broadcasters Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya as citing Yemeni and Saudi sources.
Yemen’s deputy information minister denied the reports.
Reuters also quoted BBC reports as saying that Saleh has been left with shrapnel near his heart and second-degree burns to his chest and face after the attack on his palace.
The BBC said it had been informed by “sources close to the president” that Saleh had a piece of shrapnel almost 7.6cm long under his heart.
The sources added that it was unclear whether the Yemeni president would need surgery, Reuters reported.
Saleh’s premier, who suffered facial burns, and four other wounded senior officials were transferred to neighbouring Saudi Arabia for treatment, state news agency Saba reported, according to AFP.
An aviation official said that a Saudi medical aircraft arrived in Sanaa on Saturday.
It will fly other wounded officials for treatment in Saudi Arabia, said a source close to the presidency, who added that Saleh will stay in Sanaa. The source did not provide details on the veteran leader’s condition.
Saleh’s condition was “of no cause for concern,” the medic told AFP. In an audio statement on state television late on Friday, Saleh said: “I am well, in good health,” and added the bombardment had killed seven people.
11 killed, 124 wounded
A government official on Saturday said that the death toll had risen to 11 dead and 124 wounded, AFP reported.
Saleh, in power in Sanaa since 1978, hit out at “the sons of Al Ahmar” – Sheikh Sadiq and his brothers – and urged “the security forces to purge state institutions of these gangs”.
Washington condemned the violence, including the palace attack, and called for Saleh to transfer power.
Russia expressed its concern at the “terrible civil war” in Yemen and urged the leadership to accept a Gulf Cooperation Council-sponsored plan for him to step down in return for immunity.
The parliamentary opposition on Saturday called for an “immediate” ceasefire and condemned “the dangerous twist which the clashes have taken in targeting the homes of citizens, the presidential palace, and vital installations”.
The opposition alliance in a statement urged “quick action” from the international community “to save Yemen and its people from falling into [civil] war”.
After Saleh last month refused to sign the GGC deal, opposition tribesmen seized public buildings in Sanaa, sparking clashes with Saleh forces.
Amid the latest escalation, the European Union activated a mechanism to evacuate its citizens, and Germany ordered the closure of its embassy.
Friday’s mosque attack came as fighting that has killed scores of people in north Sanaa spread to the capital’s south.
Yemeni troops also shelled the home of Sheikh Hamid, a brother of Sheikh Sadiq, in apparent retaliation.
Shelling in Hada neighbourhood also targeted the homes of two other Ahmar brothers, Hemyar and Mizhij, and that of dissident General Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar.
The attack on Sheikh Hamid’s home killed 10 people and wounded 35, his office said, according to AFP.
More than 70 people have now been confirmed killed in the fighting in Sanaa since a fragile four-day truce collapsed between Ahmar tribesmen and Saleh loyalists.
In the flashpoint city of Taiz, the commander of the 33rd armoured division, General Yahya Al Hashidi, joined the protesters calling for Saleh to quit, a military official told AFP.
Hashidi’s division controls Yemen’s southwest which includes the Bab Al Mandab Strait, the strategic entrance to the Indian Ocean from the Red Sea, through which three million barrels of Gulf oil transit each day towards the Suez Canal and Europe.
Hashidi announced his defection after being pressured by a group of officers and men sent to quell protests in Taiz, said the official.
“The officers and the soldiers refused to comply with orders requiring them to open fire on protesters” in Taez, where a crackdown on a months-long sit-in at a square left at least 50 killed on May 29, the official said.
The same division also expelled a senior officer, Major General Ahmed Handhala, who refused to defect, the official added.
Nationwide, more than 200 demonstrators have been killed since the anti-Saleh protests erupted, according to an AFP tally based on reports from medics and rights activists.
–Agencies