SANAA: Fresh fighting gripped the Yemeni capital on Saturday as embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed to hit back after he was wounded in shelling of his compound.
His premier, who suffered face burns, and four other senior officials also hurt in the attack were transferred to neighbouring Saud i Arabia for treatment, a medic and state news agency Saba said.
But Saleh, who has faced four months of protests against his rule, was "stable" in a Sanaa hospital, the medic told AFP a day after his ruling General People's Congress (GPC) party said he was "lightly wounded in the back of the head."
His regime has blamed the attack on powerful dissident tribesman Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, whose fighters have been battling government forces in the Yemeni capital since a truce crumbled on Tuesday.
In an audio statement broadcast on state television late Friday, Saleh who was being treated at the defence ministry hospital in Sanaa said, "I am well, in good health," and added the bombardment had killed seven people.
Saleh, in power in Sanaa since 1978, hit out at "the sons of Al-Ahmar," a reference to Sheikh Sadiq and his brothers, and called on "the security forces to purge state institutions of these gangs."
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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