Defected general survived ‘assassination attempt’

By Nasser Arrabyee/05/04/2011

A defected army general accused the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh late Tuesday of attempting to assassinate him after four people at least were killed at the gate of his camp.

“The clashes between troops and Saleh’s supporters today was a government attempt to assassinate General Ali Muhsen,” said a statement from the general’s office.

 

The government accused the troops of Ali Muhsen, who protest the anti-Saleh protesters, of killing four people and injuring several others.

 

“Troops of Ali Muhen militants from Al Eyman university, and thugs of the opposition who fired at the tribal mediation,” the government’ statement said.

 

The troops clashed with hundreds of tribesmen at the gate of Ali Muhsen’s 1st Armored Division, few meters from the anti-Saleh sit-in camps nearby the university of Sana’a.

 

The tribesmen, who came from Sanhan tribe, the same tribe of President Saleh and his cousin Ali Muhsen, wanted to mediate and reconcile between the two “big brothers” of the tribe, Saleh and Muhsen.

Earlier in the day, those tribal mediators including the brother of Ali Muhsen, Mohammed, were in the Presidential Palace with President Saleh who told them he wanted to save blood between brothers.

 

Muhsen’s troops control almost half of the capital Sana’a, the republican guards, under leadership of Saleh’s son, Ahmed, control the other half.