Yemeni President Wounded in Palace Attack

Anti-government protesters in Sana on Friday.

By ROBERT F. WORTH and LAURA KASINOF
NYT

WASHINGTON — The embattled president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, narrowly survived an attack on the presidential palace Friday morning when an explosion wounded him and a half-dozen other government officials in a brazen strike sure to intensify Yemen’s bloody civil conflict.

Government spokesmen said Mr. Saleh received only light wounds in the attack, apparently caused by a mortar shell or rocket slamming into a mosque at the presidential compound where the men were praying. But in a two-minute audio message broadcast later in the day — after hours of heavy fighting in the capital and rumors that he was dead — the president sounded weary and slurred his words as if he might be under sedation.

“If you are fine, I am fine,” he said in a message to the public. “God willing we will come out of this ordeal.”

Mr. Saleh placed blame squarely on the Ahmar family, the powerful opposition leaders whose tribal militia has been fighting his troops in the heart of the capital for nearly two weeks. He said the attack took place during a cease-fire, as mediation talks were under way. Spokesmen for the Ahmars denied responsibility for the attack.

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