Global General

Yemen arrests several over attack on president

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-14 06:39

SANAA - The Yemeni security authorities arrested several people suspected of being behind assassination attack against President Ali Abdullah Saleh on June 3, the ruling party's media reported on Monday.

The report said the security authorities were questioning the suspects who were arrested following the attack, but didn't identify those suspects.

"The initial investigations revealed that the (opposition) Joint Meeting Parties was involved in the attack," it added.

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The attack wounded President Saleh and forced him to fly to the Saudi capital of Riyadh to receive treatment. The Defense Ministry earlier the day said Saleh is in good condition now and would deliver a speech to the nation "very soon", without putting a time frame.

Meanwhile, the country-based al-Qaida wing were also found have links to the assassination attack, an official of Saleh's office said on Monday.

"Ahmed al-Ghadir, one of three preachers working at the mosque of the presidential palace in the capital Sanaa, arrived at the mosque earlier on June 3  and spent almost two hours there before he left for Sanaa airport where he flew to Germany," the official said, requesting anonymity.

"Al-Ghadir's travel to Germany was discovered later the day, the anti-terror security teams then broke into the apartment of al-Ghadir in downtown Sanaa and arrested some of his family members," the official said, adding that "the security teams found Yemen- based al-Qaida-related CDs and books in possession of al-Ghadir and some of his relatives."

The investigation were still underway, the official said, as another of the mosque's preachers, who is being in a military hospital in Sanaa to treat injuries he sustained in the attack told Xinhua earlier the week that the "Republican Guards suspected Ali Saleh, a half brother of the president of being the mastermind of the attack to revenge the killing of his son years ago by the president's bodyguards."

"Ali Saleh was then arrested and shot dead," the preacher said.

The attack against Saleh also killed 11 of Saleh's bodyguards and injuring several high-ranking officials, including Prime Minister Ali Mujawar, Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Affairs Rashad al-Alimy, the chairman of Shura Council Abdul-Aziz Abdul-Ghani and Parliament Speaker Yahya al-Raiee.

Leaders of the opposition, including the tribal leader Sadiq al- Ahmar who led the two-week-long pitched battles against the government forces in Sanaa, have earlier denied the accusations, saying they have no links to the alleged attack.