Tribal fighters attacked the presidential compound in Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa today, with shells fired into the compound and a nearby government mosque, killing at least seven members of he nation’s security forces and wounding President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Officials for the regime say Saleh survived with only minor injuries, but he also cancelled a scheduled TV appearance, giving a radio address instead, leaving the extent of his injuries unclear. His deputy prime minister was also wounded in the strike.
Saleh blamed the strikes on “outlaw gangs” composed of his tribal rivals. Thousands of tribesmen have attacked government buildings in the city in retaliation for recent crackdowns by Saleh’s forces.
With fighting escalating in the capital and elsewhere nationwide, the pro-democracy demonstrations are increasingly an afterthought, and the escalating civil war has taken center stage. Saleh’s control appears to have waned to another low, and it seems unfathomable he will retain his office in any meaningful way much longer.
Protesters an aftertought? In US press, they have never been humanized, to start with. For months the unarmed protestors have been killed without attracting Syria-like attention. There were no heart-breaking stories of killed children and women. No posters, no western NGO-s there to report attrocities. Where is the outcry? Those "tribesmen" had watched their youth killed as unarmed protestors, and they had it enough. "Tribes" are Yemen. Country was never centralized, and local government is called a "tribe". The entire population has ALWAYS been armed, and this is the outcome when a tyrant, well supported from the outside, decides to rule with iron fist. The "south", or Hadhramouth, was forcibly incorporated into Yemen, and wants to go free. Of course he would call them Al-Qaeda, to get US to keep them down. His mercenaries in Republican Guard are often foreigners, foreign trained, and politically PROTECTED: there is no western media feeding frenzy on attrocties.