Saleh health ‘stable’ as Yemenis demand successor

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is “stable” after being treated in Riyadh for bomb wounds, a Saudi official said Wednesday as protesters pushed to form an interim ruling council. The veteran leader’s health status has been sketchy since he was flown Saturday to Riyadh for treatment from wounds sustained in a bomb attack the day before on his presidential compound. He has not been seen in public since. “The condition of the Yemeni president is stable,” a Saudi official told AFP requesting anonymity, adding the beleaguered president was waiting for doctor
to “appoint a date for cosmetic surgery.”
Saleh, 69, would undergo a cosmetic operation to treat “light burns on the scalp,” he said, adding that “reports on the deterioration of his health condition are baseless”. His vice president, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, has insisted that Saleh is in good condition and that he will return to Yemen within days. The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan on Wednesday quoted a Yemeni diplomat in Riyadh as saying that Saleh’s condition was no longer critical despite his having been “in great danger” earlier. The unnamed diplomat was quoted as saying that “a medium-sized and contaminating piece of shrapnel had stayed for more than two days in a sensitive area near (Saleh’s) heart,” before it was removed at a Riyadh military hospital.
Meanwhile, a group of anti-Saleh protesters set up dozens of tents outside Hadi’s residence of on Wednesday in a new push for the deputy leader to set up an interim presidential council. Although soldiers from the first armoured division commanded by dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar removed the camp, the action appeared to reflect an intensification in pressure to prevent Saleh from returning to power. Thousands of protesters had demonstrated on Tuesday outside Hadi’s residence voicing the same demand.
In a statement after the protest, a youth group demanded “an immediate declaration of a one-year transitional period… and the formation of an interim presidential council made of civilians known for their integrity and competence.” The group, leader of protests at Sanaa’s University Square, now dubbed “Change Square,” also demanded “former regime” figures be banned from joining the council, and not allowing members of the proposed council to run in presidential elections.
Meanwhile, the situation in Taez, Yemen’s second-largest city, was calm Wednesday while security forces returned to man checkpoints at the city entries, witnesses said. Armed local youths and tribesmen had formed vigilante committees across most of the city after security forces retreated to their bases, days after pro-Saleh forces cracked down on a sit-in in Freedom Square in central Taez, killing more than 50 demonstrators, according to UN figures. At least 200 protesters have been killed in Yemen in more than four months of protests demanding the ouster of Saleh, who has been in office since 1978.
But Saleh has been adamant in refusing to sign a Gulf-brokered deal that would see him quit in return for immunity against prosecution. Washington has urged Saleh, its declared ally in the “war on terror,” to step down immediately.
In Aden, a bodyguard of a top security official was killed and two others wounded in an assassination attempt. The attack took place as tension prevailed around the southern city of Zinjibar which is held by suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen after 30 armed men and nine soldiers were killed in fierce clashes Tuesday as troops advanced on the city in a bid to regain control there. Security officials insist the militants holding the city are Al-Qaeda fighters, but the political opposition accuses Saleh’s government of inventing a jihadist threat in a bid to head off Western pressure on his 33-year rule.