Militants of tribal leader start to storm government buildings in the Yemeni capital

By Nasser Arrabyee/23/05/2011

A Yemeni journalist was shot with a bullet in his leg when armed tribesmen belonging to influential tribal leader opposing the President Ali Abdullah Saleh, tried to storm government buildings nearby the palace of the tribal leader.

The injured journalist Farook Al Kamali was working in his desk in the Yemeni official news agency Saba late after noon on Monday, his colleagues said.

About 100 journalists and administrators were blockaded in the building of Saba agency which is only about 200 metres away from the Palace of the tribal leader Sadeq Al Ahmar and his nine brothers who all seek to ouster President Saleh.

Al Ahmar family accused President Saleh of turning the government buildings around their Palace to military barracks, and “this is why they tried” today to storm these buildings like the Saba news agency, and the ministry of trade, and headquarters of the ruling party, and building of Yemeni airliner, Yemenia.

The spokesman of tribal leader, Abdul Al Kawee Al Kaisi, said however, the militants of Al Ahmar only defended themselves when Saleh’s army and security forces tried to storm Al Ahmar’s Palace in Al Hasaba area, north of the capital Sanaá.

The journalist Hassan Al Warith said that the upper layers of Saba news agency was bombarded with RPG, and other medium-sized weapons.

“ We are now in the basement, about 70 journalists, and the upper layers are under fire by all kinds of weapons, we urgently need to be rescued ,it’s been more than six hours for our blockade by Al Ahmar militants,’’ Said Al Warith, who works as investigative reporter at Saba.

The clashes of Monday nearby Al Ahmar’s Palace, which is heavily fortified, with a lot of barricades and even anti-aircraft guns around it, were not the first but the fiercest.

A source close to Al Ahmar’s family said, the militants of Al Ahmar were very angry today because they saw Saleh’s supporters transfer a lot of weapons to the school of Al Ramah, which is not far from the Al Ahmar’s Palace.

“They realized that bringing such weapons to this school is only to target them,” the source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

“What happened today, came after a long series of provocative acts by the Saleh’s Balatega , thugs.”

“The sheikh supporters want only to defend themselves, they do not want to attack any one,” the source defended.

The billionaire Hamid Al Ahmar, accused of orchestrating and funding the 4-month anti-Saleh protests, has been grooming himself for presidency since 2006 when he publically called for a revolution against President Saleh after his candidate Faisal bin Shamlan lost elections and Saleh won.

However, some of the anti-Saleh protesters, look at what happened today nearby Al Ahmar’s Palace, as only conspiracy from Saleh and his supporters to divert the attention from the popular uprising .

“What’s happened today, is just a play from Saleh to portray the conflict as a conflict between him and Al Ahmar’s family and not a conflict between him and the whole people,” said Ameen Arrabyee, one of the leading protesters in sit-in square at the gate of university.