Wounded leader leaves Yemen, deepening chaos

SANAA, Yemen —(UPDATE) Yemen’s embattled president flew to Saudi Arabia for urgent medical care after he was wounded by a rocket attack on his palace, raising the specter of a violent power grab in this impoverished country shaken by months of protests calling for his ouster. It was not immediately clear who was in charge.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled Yemen for nearly 33 years, had clung to power since the uprising against his rule began in early February, even with massive peaceful protests daily demanding he step down immediately. The conflict turned decidedly more violent over the past two weeks when formal tribal allies of Saleh turned against him and turned the streets of the capital Sanaa into a war zone.

Other forces were rising against Saleh at the same time. There were high-level defections within his military and Islamist fighters took over at least one town in the south in the past two weeks.

Saleh was also under intense pressure to step down from his powerful Gulf neighbors, who control a large share of the world’s oil resources, and from longtime ally Washington. They all fear Yemen could be headed toward a failed state that will become a fertile ground for al-Qaida’s most active franchise in the world to operate and launch attacks abroad.

Even before the uprising began, Yemen was already the poorest Arab country in the Middle East and the government’s authority did not extend far outside the capital. It faced opposition from rebellious Shiites in the north on the border with Saudi Arabia and a secessionist revolt in the south. The regime was also trying, with strong US military help, to fight al-Qaida.

In the past two weeks, a powerful tribal coalition turned against the regime and they fought pitched battles that engulfed the capital Sanaa in violence. The battles reached a crescendo Friday when a rocket slammed into the mosque in the presidential compound during a prayer service, killing 11 bodyguards and seriously injuring five top officials who were worshipping along with Saleh. The five officials wounded were taken to neighboring Saudi for care.

A Yemeni official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information, said Saleh had left with most of his family. The official said he and others had only learned about Saleh’s plans after the president left.

Officials said Yemen’s constitution calls for the vice president to take over in the absence of the president. Several other senior regime leaders, including the prime minister, also were in Saudi Arabia after being wounded in Friday’s attack.

Saleh has been widely believed to be grooming his son, Ahmed, as a successor. Ahmed was believed to have stayed behind in an apparent bid to hold on to power, raising concern the country could be pitted into a violent power struggle as the sides jockey to fill the vacuum in the president’s absence.

Saleh’s departure likely means his rule is over, said Christopher Boucek, a Yemen expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“I’d hate to rule anything out for President Saleh,” Boucek said, noting that Saleh is a proven political survivor who has often beat overwhelming odds. “But I can’t see how he can come back and still be president.”

A statement from the Saudi royal palace said a Saudi medical team traveled to Yemen to examine the president, then advised him to seek treatment in the kingdom. Saleh agreed and left Saturday night, the statement said.

Sheik Mohammed Nagi al-Shayef, a tribal ally, said he met the president Saturday evening at the Defense Ministry compound in the capital.

“He suffered burns, but they were not serious. He was burned on both hands, his face and head,” al-Shayef told The Associated Press. He said Saleh also was hit by jagged pieces of wood that splintered from the mosque pulpit. About 200 people were in the mosque when the rocket struck, he said.

Saleh’s departure will not necessarily end the crisis in Yemen.

For one thing, fighting could continue between the tribal forces and pro-regime units led by loyal members of Saleh’s inner circle. In his more than three decades in power, Saleh administered an elaborate patronage system to ensure the loyalty of military officers and some of those beneficiaries would be tempted to continue the fight in the hope of keeping the perks they had enjoyed under the president.

If Saleh’s departure causes the regime to collapse, tribal chieftains would want to take credit for the ouster of the regime and get a dominant role in the country’s future. Given the conservative politics of tribal leaders, that could well place them on a collision course with the youth groups that have for months staged peaceful demonstrations in Sanaa and across much of the country to demand Saleh’s ouster and political reforms.

A video posted on YouTube late Saturday showed hundreds of protesters in the Sanaa square where activists have camped out for months dancing and singing, some riding on each other’s shoulders. The video’s date could not be confirmed.

Originally posted at 11:04 am | Sunday, June 5th, 2011