Yemeni leader makes call to arms

Wounded Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh tonight called on armed forces around the country to move against the “armed gangs” who hit his palace with rockets.

In a short message broadcast on Yemen’s state radio, Saleh spoke in a laboured voice, his breathing at times heavy.

Officials had earlier said that the president, in his late 60s, would appear at a press conference in the wake of the attack. But there were no live images of Saleh with the recorded message.

Saleh addressed the Yemeni public saying: “If you are well, I am well.”

He blamed an “gang of outlaws” for the rocket attack and urged all military around the country to confront them.

Saleh was wounded when opposition tribesmen determined to topple him hammered his palace with rockets in a major escalation of nearly two weeks of fighting with government forces.

At least four guards were killed and seven top officials were also wounded.

Saleh suffered light injuries to the neck and was treated in the palace.

It was the first time that tribal fighters have directly targeted Saleh’s palace in the fighting that has rocked the capital since May 23. The rocket strike came after government forces launched an intense artillery barrage at the homes of two tribal leaders and a top military general who also joined the opposition. The houses were flattened, witnesses said.

The fighting pits Saleh’s troops against tribesmen loyal to Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, head of the Hashid, Yemen’s most powerful tribal confederation. Al-Ahmar supports the hundreds of thousands of protesters who have been pressing for Saleh to step down since February, but his tribal fighters stayed on the sidelines until Saleh’s troops last week moved against al-Ahmar’s residence in Sanaa.

The rockets hit the presidential compound as officials were praying at a mosque inside, the official said. Four guards were killed and seven other officials were wounded.

Among those wounded were the prime minister, the deputy prime minister, the parliament speaker and the governor of Sanaa, the official said. The most serious injuries were to Sanaa’s governor Nooman Dweid, and Deputy Prime Minister Rashad al-Alimi, who is also the president’s top security adviser and who remained unconscious from his wounds.

Saleh, in power for 33 years, has stuck out for months against the wave of peaceful protests that has spread across Yemen since February. Tens of thousands of demonstrators continue to mass daily in a central square of Sanaa, as well as in other cities. Last night government forces opened fire on protesters in Sanaa, wounding three, and troops also fired on protesters in the city of Taiz, south of the capital, today.

The White House called for restraint in Yemen. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the US is very concerned about the escalating violence in Yemen and said the dispute there will only be solved through negotiations.

The Pentagon said there was no move now to bring US troops in Yemen out of the country.

“We do still have some service members in the country and they take necessary precautions. Beyond that, I won’t talk specifics,” Defence Department spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said, declining to give the number of US troops there helping to train local counter-terrorism forces.