Yemen president flies to Saudi for treatment (Reuters)

SANAA/RIYADH (Reuters) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh, wounded in an attack on his presidential palace, has flown to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, potentially offering a face-saving end to his three decade rule.

But uncertainty about whether his sons and nephews would try to maintain a grip on power following months of protests against Saleh's rule meant the risk of further turmoil remained.

Acting President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was slated to meet members of the military and Saleh's sons, Al Arabiya television said on Sunday, citing sources. It was the first indication Saleh's powerful sons had not left the country.

Saudi sources said Riyadh had brokered a ceasefire between rival clans and political elites.

But on Sunday, heavy gunfire and explosions rang out in the capital Sanaa. Witnesses said the gunfire was heard in the Hasaba district, a focal point of fighting in recent weeks between Saleh's forces and members of the powerful Hashed tribe led by Sadeq al-Ahmar.

The streets of Sanaa had been mostly quiet earlier on Sunday except for a few small gatherings celebrating Saleh's departure.

"Our happiness will be complete once we're sure that Saleh won't come back," a resident at a local cafe said."

In the southern city of Taiz, thousands of people celebrated Saleh's trip to Saudi Arabia with a fireworks display.

The Saudi royal court said Saleh had arrived to be treated for wounds suffered in Friday's rocket attack on his presidential palace -- an assault that marked a major escalation in a conflict building toward full civil war.

Rumors of Saleh's departure had circulated in Sanaa for hours before his arrival in Riyadh was confirmed, and Yemeni officials repeatedly denied he had any plans to leave.

"These are the most difficult days and we're worried the coming days will be even more difficult," Sanaa resident Ali al Mujahid, 42, said. "We want them to solve their conflicts and leave us to live in peace."

Saleh, whose Saudi medical evacuation plane was met by a senior Saudi official, walked off the aircraft but had visible injuries on his neck, head and face, a source told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia, itself concerned about militant groups operating on Yemeni territory, has been to the fore in efforts by Gulf states to negotiate Saleh's resignation and peaceful handover of power to fractious opposition groups. He has several times backed away from agreements at the last moment.

The world's top oil exporter shares a 1,500-km (950-mile) border with Yemen, and until recently with the United States had backed Saleh as an ally against a Yemen-based arm of al Qaeda.

"I think this is just about the end of his match," Khalid al-Dakhil, a Saudi political analyst, said. "The Saudis are not going to bargain with him."

DIFFICULT DAYS

Leaving Yemen at a time of such instability, even for medical care, could make it hard for Saleh to retain power. Saleh's vice-president, largely a figurehead, took over as acting president and head of the armed forces in Yemen.

U.S. President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism aide spoke on Saturday with the Yemeni vice-president, the White House said, without offering details of the talks. Washington has been calling for Saleh to leave.

The true seat of power, following Saleh's departure, has yet to be decided. But Saleh's eldest son, Ahmed, commands the elite Republican Guard and three of his nephews control the country's security and intelligence units.

Saleh was transferred to a military hospital after landing at King Khalid Air Base, a Saudi source said.

He will have tests before surgery to remove shrapnel from his body, the source said, adding Saleh was also expected to have plastic surgery to mend wounds on his face and neck.

The rocket attack, which killed seven people, devastated the government. The prime minister, two deputy prime ministers and the speakers of both parliamentary chambers are being treated in Riyadh for injuries.

The latest violence, which pitted Saleh loyalist forces against members of the Ahmar's Hashed tribe, was the bloodiest since pro-democracy unrest erupted in January and was sparked by Saleh's refusal to sign a power transfer deal.

A Saudi official said Saudi Arabia had brokered a fresh truce between the Hashed tribe and forces loyal to Saleh, and a tribal leader said his followers were abiding by it.

A truce agreed a week ago held for only a day before fresh street battles broke out in the capital Sanaa, leading to the most intense fighting there in the four-month-old uprising against Saleh's rule.

Abdulla Ali al-Radhi, Yemen's ambassador to Britain, said of Friday's attack on the palace: "The rocket was devastating. It was a clear assassination attempt against the president."

AL QAEDA

Worries are mounting that Yemen, already on the brink of financial ruin and home to al Qaeda militants, could become a failed state that poses a threat to the world's top oil exporting region and to global security.

Saleh's forces retaliated over the attack by shelling the homes of the leaders of the Hashed tribal federation, which has been engaged in street fights with his forces. Spokesmen for the group denied responsibility for the palace attack and said 10 tribesmen were killed and dozens injured by the shelling.

A growing number of people in Saleh's inner circle feel the attack may have been carried out by General Ali Mohsen who has broken from Saleh, sided with anti-government protesters and called the president a "madman who is thirsty for more bloodshed."

An expert on Yemen with close ties to Sanaa's leadership said: "Nobody could have done this with such military precision other than a military man."

Saleh has exasperated his former U.S. and Saudi allies, who once saw him as a key partner in efforts to combat Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), by repeatedly reneging on a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council for him to quit in return for immunity from prosecution.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed al-Ramahi in Sanaa, Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden, Khaled al-Mahdi in Taiz, Mahmoud Habboush in Dubai, Samia Nakhoul in London, Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin and the Madrid bureau; writing by Ralph Boulton; editing by Myra MacDonald)

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South African President Zuma flies into Tripoli (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – South African President Jacob Zuma flew into Tripoli Monday to try to broker a peace deal with Muammar Gaddafi, just hours after NATO's secretary-general said the Libyan leader's "reign of terror" was coming to an end.

Zuma was met by a host of dignitaries, not including Gaddafi himself, who has not been seen since May 11 when he was shown by Libyan state television meeting what it said was tribal leaders.

His walk down the red carpet at Tripoli airport was accompanied by a band and children chanting "We want Gaddafi!" in English while waving Libyan flags and pictures of the leader.

Zuma's visit is his second since the conflict began. His previous trip made little progress because Gaddafi has refused to relinquish power while rebel leaders say that is a pre-condition for any truce.

NATO warplanes have been raising the pace of their air strikes on Tripoli, with Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound in the center of the city being hit repeatedly.

Britain said Sunday it was to add "bunker-busting" bombs to the arsenal its warplanes are using over Libya, a weapon it said would send a message to Gaddafi that it was time to quit.

"Our operation in Libya is achieving its objectives ... We have seriously degraded Gaddafi's ability to kill his own people," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a NATO forum in Varna, Bulgaria.

"Gaddafi's reign of terror is coming to an end. He is increasingly isolated at home and abroad. Even those closest to him are departing, defecting or deserting."

Gaddafi denies attacking civilians, saying his forces were obliged to act to contain armed criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants. He says the NATO intervention is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's plentiful oil reserves.

BUNKER-BUSTERS

Britain and other NATO powers are ratcheting up the military intervention to try to break a deadlock that has seen Gaddafi hold on to power despite a rebel uprising against his four-decade rule and weeks of air strikes.

U.S. Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the Joint Operations Command at Naples, declined to comment on whether NATO would put forces on the ground but suggested a small force may be needed to help the rebels once Gaddafi's rule collapses.

He told the Varna forum: "I would anticipate that there might be a need at some point to unfold a small force ... a small number of people there to help them in some way."

Britain said the Enhanced Paveway III bombs, each weighing nearly a tone and capable of penetrating the roof or wall of a reinforced building, had arrived at the Italian air base from where British warplanes fly missions over Libya.

"We are not trying to physically target individuals in Gaddafi's inner circle on whom he relies, but we are certainly sending them increasingly loud messages," British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said Sunday in a statement.

The military alliance says it is acting under a mandate from the United Nations to protect civilians from attack by security forces trying to put down the rebellion against Gaddafi.

But the more aggressive tactics risk causing divisions within the fragile alliance backing the intervention, and could also lead to NATO being dragged closer toward putting its troops on Libyan soil, something it is anxious to avoid.

Further deepening their involvement, Britain and France have said they will deploy attack helicopters over Libya to better pick out pro-Gaddafi forces. Helicopters are more vulnerable to attack from the ground than high-flying warplanes.

Sunday Al Jazeera television station broadcast video footage of what it said were foreign forces, possibly British, on the ground near the rebel-held city of Misrata.

There were a number of armed men, some wearing sunglasses and keffiyahs, or traditional Arab headscarves, who moved off when they realized they were being watched, the footage showed.

Gaddafi's foreign minister held talks in Tunisia Saturday with Lord David Trefgarne, a former British government minister, according to a former British ambassador to Libya who took part in the discussions.

The ex-ambassador refused to disclose what they talked about and Britain's government said neither it not any intermediaries were talking to officials loyal to Gaddafi.

ROCKETS FIRED

Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, toward the border with Tunisia.

Helped by NATO air support, the rebels have been able to push back attacks by pro-Gaddafi forces but in many places they are still under bombardment and cut off from supplies.

Libyan state television reported that NATO air strikes killed 11 people in Zlitan Monday, the next town westwards on the coast road toward Tripoli from Misrata.

Libya's state news agency Jana also reported that NATO airstrikes hit the Tiji area, near the Western Mountain town of Nalut, overnight, causing "human and material losses."

Libyan officials took journalists Sunday to a school in Tripoli near the part of Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound that had been hit by NATO planes during air strikes Saturday.

There was little evidence of damage, but head teacher Hamid Miftar said the nearby blast had broken one or two windows and terrified the children as they sat for the first day of exams.

"Imagine the scene, with children this age in a school of this capacity. They all tried to run out at once," he said. "These are civilians."

As reporters toured classrooms, teachers led the schoolchildren in chants of "Allah, Muammar, Libya together!."

(Additional reporting by Stefano Ambrogi in London, Joseph Logan in Tripoli, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers and Matt Robinson in Zintan; Writing by Christian Lowe and Jan Harvey; Editing by Alison Williams)

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