Saleh's wounds 'worse than thought'
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was more badly injured than first thought in a blast at his compound last week.
Mr Saleh is receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia for burns covering 40% of his body, according to US sources said.
Yemen’s leader also is suffering from bleeding inside his skull, injuries probably caused by a bomb inside his compound in the Yemeni capital, not a rocket attack from outside the compound walls as was initially thought.
Mr Saleh underwent surgery to remove shards of wood from his chest and treat heavy burns on his face and chest from the attack, which killed 11 bodyguards and seriously wounded five other senior officials.
It is not known when the leader of 33 years planned to return to Yemen, but a top official said he would return home within days.
Any return would probably spark new, intensified fighting between his forces and opposition tribesmen determined to topple him. Both sides’ fighters are deployed in the streets of the capital, and a cease-fire brokered by Saudi Arabia only a day earlier was already starting to fray, with clashes killing at least six over the past 24 hours.
The information on his condition was circulating in Washington as the US continued to press him to step down after more than three decades in power, so that a transition process can end months of political unrest. The US also fears the dangerous al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula offshoot could take advantage of the chaos to expand its power in one of the Arab world’s poorest countries.
Meanwhile government forces killed 30 Islamic militants in Yemen’s troubled southern province of Abyan in what appears to be an escalation of a military campaign to retake areas captured by extremists.
The violence underscores fears of increasing instability in the Arab world’s most impoverished country.
