Saleh 'suffered 40% burns in attack on presidential palace'

THE president of Yemen suffered 40 per cent burns to his body in the attack on his palace mosque last week, it was claimed yesterday.

It was initially reported that Ali Abdullah Saleh sustained burns to his face, neck and arms.

But it emerged yesterday that his back was also burned. He is now being treated at the Armed Forces Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

One western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "His face was quite charred. The burns are serious; he is not as well as his aides are portraying it."

The source of the explosion, which killed several guards and the imam of the mosque and injured several other government officials, has remained a mystery. It was initially believed to have come from a mortar or rocket attack from outside the compound.

But as the investigation continued, opinion has shifted to the possibility of at least one or more explosive devices, including in the pulpit, or minbar, a western official said.

The explosive material also apparently contained some kind of accelerant that spurred flames, a western diplomat said. Mr Saleh was said to be bowing when the explosive went off.

"He was very close and that is why he was burned," said the Western official.

The burns are not life-threatening, both Yemeni and western officials said. Given the pain involved with burns, however, the president would require strong sedation, the officials added.

The burns are expected to heal, but are extensive enough to need three or four months for that, said the Yemeni official, suggesting no immediate returned to Yemen.

There have also been reports that one of the wooden shards that sliced into his body punctured a lung, said Abdul Rahman al-Rashed, the head of the Arabiya television network. That too could require a more extended period of convalescence, he said.

The minbar is usually a raised wooden platform from which the cleric delivers the Friday sermon - and the wooden shrapnel from it injured many senior figures including the president.

Mr Saleh was flown to Riyadh on Saturday with about a dozen of his top political allies who are all being treated at the Armed Forces Hospital.

Nouman Duweid, the governor of the capital, Sanaa, flown out a day later, remains in a coma, said Tareq Shami, the spokesman for the General People's Congress. Other officials evacuated were the prime minister, the speaker of parliament, the head of the Shura council, and two deputy prime ministers, including one, Sadiq Ameen Abu Ras, who lost a leg, Yemeni officials said.

At least a half dozen other members of parliament, advisers and soldiers are also being treated.A return by Mr Saleh would probably spark new, intensified fighting between his forces and opposition tribesmen determined to topple him. Both sides' fighters were deployed in the streets of the capital yesterday, and a ceasefire brokered by Saudi Arabia only a day earlier was already starting to fray, with clashes killing at least six people over the past 48 hours.