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Yemeni president: ’See you soon in Sanaa’

16 August 2011 19:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed Tuesday to return to Yemen soon from Saudi Arabia, where he has been recuperating from wounds he suffered in an attack on his palace compound, APA reports quoting Associated Press.
Yemen is reeling from six months of mass street protests calling for Saleh’s ouster, and there are fears that his return to the country could spark a civil war. The political crisis already has triggered an armed conflict between Saleh’s forces and heavily armed tribesmen who have turned against him. There are also are concerns that Yemen’s al-Qaida offshoot will take advantage of the turmoil and have a freer hand in plotting attacks on the West.
Speaking Tuesday in a televised address from Saudi Arabia, Saleh vowed to return home, telling his supporters: "See you soon in Sanaa." He also lashed out at his opponents, calling them, "exploiters, war merchants, and street looters."
Saleh, who only last week left the hospital in Riyadh were he’d be recovering since early June, appeared to be in better shape compared to his first appearance after the attack, when he looked stiff and frail.
Other than the medical white gloves covering his burnt hands, Saleh seemed to have recovered from the attack. His face appeared to have healed from the burns, and he moved comfortably and confidently in front of the camera.
Saleh didn’t refer to a power-transfer deal â€” backed by Saudi Arabia and the U.S. â€” which offers him immunity from prosecution if he steps down. Saleh has three times agreed to the deal, put forward by Arab Gulf states, only to back out on each occasion at the last minute.
The proposal would see Saleh transfer power to his deputy, who would then call presidential elections.
On Tuesday, Saleh said he is willing hand over power to his vice president if the armed tribal fighters who support the protesters are pulled from the streets and the opposition ends its demonstrations.
The opposition has rebuffed past overtures from Saleh, calling them insincere, and it was not immediately clear whether it would take the president’s offer seriously this time.

Baku-APA. Heavy machine-gun fire erupted across the besieged Syrian city of Latakia on Tuesday as the death toll rose to 35 from a military assault now in its fourth day, residents and activists said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
President Bashar Assad has dramatically escalated the crackdown on a 5-month-old uprising since the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Despite broad international condemnation, the regime has unleashed tanks, ground troops and snipers in an attempt to retake control in rebellious areas.
Assad has launched military operations in Latakia, the opposition stronghold of Hama, the central city of Homs, as well as the eastern city of Deir el-Zour.
The state-run SANA news agency said army units began withdrawing from Deir el-Zour Tuesday after clearing the city of "armed terrorist gangs" in an operation that lasted several days. Syrian journalists on a government-organized trip to the city saw armored personnel carriers and other military vehicles on their way out.
Syrian troops seized control of the eastern flashpoint city last Wednesday after shelling it and carrying out a string of arrests.
In Latakia, most of the shooting Tuesday was in the city’s impoverished districts of al-Ramel, al-Shaab and Ein Tamra. Al-Ramel is home to a crowded Palestinian refugee camp where many low-income Syrians also live.
"They are arresting people all the time, they took most of my friends," said a resident, who fled to a nearby, safer area on Monday. He said many people who fled al-Ramel were later arrested in Ein Tamra. "Nowhere is safe," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The U.N. agency that aids Palestinian refugees says more than 5,000 refugees have fled the camp since Assad’s forces began shelling the city in an operation that started Saturday.
The regime insists its crackdown is aimed at rooting out terrorists fomenting unrest in the country. But various human rights groups have accused Syrian troops of firing on largely unarmed protesters and say more than 1,800 civilians have been killed since the uprising erupted in mid-March.