Attack on Yemeni President: Wounded But Still Alive

Ali Abdullah Saleh

The health condition of President Abdullah Saleh of Yemen remains uncertain after he was reported injured as a result of an attack on a presidential compound.

The first reports about the attack on presidential compound said that the president was killed. Then, he was reported taken to Saudi Arabia for treatment. Both Saudi and Yemeni authorities denied the news that he fled to Saudi Arabia.

Yemeni state television broadcasted a late night presidential audio recorded address in which he was reading a statement.

It is considered that the broadcast was intended to calm the rumors that had been going on unchecked in the country since the attack.

Yemeni Rebels

Though he told the Yemeni people he was safe and sound, which was not as good a news as he had intended it, his voice sounded as if he had been under heavy medication.

Saleh announced that seven people were killed as a result of the attack, including the imam of the compound.

The opposition leaders told the people in Sanaa’s Change Square, the center of Yemeni revolution, that the president was killed.

The news made the people erupt in cheers and dance and celebrate.

Earlier in the week, fierce fighting broke out in the capital’s neighborhoods between governmental forces and tribal leaders. The fight claimed the lives of more than 100 people, and practically threw the country into chaos.

Yemeni president has been askedto leave power by the same time this year Hosni Mubarak was requested the same thing.

The president promised on many occasions to stand down and organize free elections, but at the same time his regime has cracked down heavily on demonstrators, leaving many dead and many others maimed.