Saleh leaves hospital two months after palace attack

Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh has left hospital in Saudi Arabia, more than two months after being severely wounded in an attack on his palace compound in Sanaa.

Yemeni officials said Mr Saleh, who was badly burned in the 3 June attack in the Yemeni capital, had been discharged from the hospital in Riyadh on Saturday night and moved to a residence in the city belonging to the Saudi royal family to further recuperate.

"The president is still under medical supervision," one government official said in Sanaa. "We don't know yet when he will return to the country, but soon, God willing."

Mr Saleh said last month, during his first and only public appearance since the attack, that he had undergone eight operations. His prolonged absence from the public eye fuelled speculation about the severity of his wounds and whether they would prevent him from returning to Yemen.

The attack killed 11 bodyguards and seriously wounded five senior officials worshipping alongside Mr Saleh in the presidential palace's mosque. The government first blamed the blast on anti-government tribal fighters, and then said al-Qaeda had been behind the attack.

Mr Saleh's absence has only added to the turmoil in Yemen, where more than six months of mass protests calling for the president's fall have battered the economy and seen security crumble across the nation.