Yemen president 'alive and well after attack'

Yemen president 'alive and well after attack'

State television seeks to assure the public after Ali Abdullah Saleh reported wounded in shelling of palace in Sanaa.

Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, has reportedly been injured in an attack on the presidential palace in the capital, Sanaa.

Yemeni security officials told reporters that the country's prime minister was also injured as shells struck a mosque in the presidential palace compound on Friday.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh "was lightly wounded in the attack" on the palace mosque in Sanaa, a security official told the AFP news agency. The extent of prime minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar's injuries were not immediately clear.

However, in an assurance to the Yemeni public, state television later said that the president was "well", and the country's deputy information minister told the Reuters news agency that Saleh would address the people shortly.

Authorities blamed the shelling on dissident tribesmen loyal to Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar who have been locked in fierce clashes with government forces in Sanaa since Tuesday.

"The prime minister, head of the parliament and several other officials who attended the Friday prayers in the mosque at the presidential palace were wounded in the attack," Tareq al-Shami, spokesman for the ruling General People's Congress, told AFP.

"The Ahmar (tribe) have crossed all red lines," he added.

Abdul Ghani Al-Iryani, an independent political analyst in Sanaa, told Al Jazeera that it was "quite reasonable to assume" that al-Ahmar's fighters were behind the attack on the presidential palace.

"[The tribesmen] probably wanted him to know that [Saleh] can no longer attack them with impunity, and that they can reach him as he can reach them," Al-Iryani said, of the attack's possible message.

Tribal home 'shelled'

The attack came soon after Yemeni troops, who have deployed heavy weaponry in their battle against the tribesmen, sent a shell crashing into the home of Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar, a leader of the biggest opposition party and brother of Sheikh Sadiq.

Three shells also struck near the university campus in the city centre where opponents of Saleh have been holding a sit-in since late January.

After a brief lull at dawn, artillery and heavy machine-gun fire rocked the Al-Hassaba neighbourhood of northern Sanaa where Sheikh Sadiq has his base, witnesses said.

They said that during the fighting the headquarters of national airline Yemenia was burnt down and the offices of Suhail TV, a channel controlled by Sheikh Sadiq, destroyed.

There was no immediate word on casualties from the latest fighting as medics said ambulance crews were unable to access the battlegrounds.

Before the attack on the palace, protesters paraded the coffins of people it said were killed by Saleh's forces.

Heavy fighting also spread for the first time to the southern part of Sanaa, an area held by forces loyal to Saleh and possibly marking a turning point in the conflict.

Explosions were heard in the southern city of Taiz, where the United Nations has said it is investigating reports that 50 people have been killed since Sunday.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies