Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh Goes For Major Surgery

As reported earlier there was considerable amount of confusion about the injuries sustained by President Ali Abdullah Saleh for the simple reason that he did not appear on national television or any other channel. Now it is becoming increasingly clear that injuries were not minor but quite serious. Even though officially nothing has been told but all the indicators point toward serious trouble.

First point I would like to mention is that amidst such heavy fighting the President accepts the offer for treatment in Saudi Arabia can mean either Saleh has accepted the inevitable that he has lost the war and was looking for a face saving way of escaping or President is so badly injured that there was no other way than to go for treatment to Saudi.

Secondly some reports have started appearing in western media that Saleh is undergoing neurosurgery.

A senior United States official said Saleh had shrapnel wounds and severe burns to his face and chest, adding that it was not clear how serious the injuries were. The official declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Saleh flew to Saudi Arabia Saturday after the attack, leaving Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in charge.Saudi medical teams have reported that injuries to President Saleh were much more serious than what was expected earlier. Unfortunately no clear answer were available anywhere.

Irrespective of the seriousness of his injuries or what President Saleh will do in future tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators celebrated in the streets of the cities of Sanaa and Taiz Sunday.Yemen's largest opposition bloc Sunday vowed to keep Saleh from returning to Yemen."The Yemeni people will do all in their power to not allow Saleh to reenter the country," Joint Meeting Parties spokesman Mohammed Qahtan said.

Yemeni security forces on Friday pounded the home of Sadeq al-Ahmar, the Hashed tribal leader whose supporters were first suspected of being behind the attack on the presidential palace. The flurry of shelling left 10 people dead and 35 others wounded, according to Fawzi Al-Jaradi, an official with Hamil al-Ahmar, a Hashed tribal confederation led by Sadeq al-Ahmar.