Yemenis see Saleh injuries as spur for new regime

PRESIDENT Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen suffered far more serious injuries than first reported during an attack on his presidential palace last week, including a collapsed lung and burns over 40% of his body, it has been claimed.

Thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Yemeni vice-president’s residence, demanding the acting leader form a transitional council to create a new government.

Around 4,000 demonstrators in Sanaa, the capital, who have spent five months calling for Saleh to step down, called for a “million-man march” for Saleh to stay in Saudi Arabia, where he has been treated since Friday.

Saleh, 69, was wounded on Friday when rockets struck his Sanaa palace, killing seven people and wounding senior officials and advisers.

The New York Times said Saleh, who is in the Armed Forces Hospital in Riyadh, had been burned on his face, neck, arms and part of his back, quoting sources who were speaking on condition of anonymity.

“His face was quite charred,” the paper quoted a Western official as saying. “The burns are serious.”

Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the vice-president, has said Saleh intends to return within days, but doubts have been cast on whether he can come back at all.

Protesters carried banners saying “The blood of the liberated achieved victory” and “Our revolution is Yemeni, not Gulf or American”.

“We will remain in front of the residence of the vice president for 24 hours to pressure him for the formation of a transitional council,” said youth activist Omar al-Qudsid.

“The era of Saleh has ended.”

The volatile situation in Yemen, which lies on vital oil shipping lanes, has alarmed Western powers and neighbouring oil giant Saudi Arabia, who fear that chaos would enable the local al-Qaida franchise to operate more freely there.

Reuters