President Saleh to leave Yemen to US

Several protesters of Life March killed
By Mohammed al-kibsi

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh  said he would travel to United States soon  not only for medical treatment but also for political affairs.

And he said  he would return to Yemen to join the opposition through his party after a new president is elected on February 21, 2012.

Saleh  accused the Islamist  and tribal leader Hamid Al Ahmar of being behind the terrorist attack on him  and his top aides on June 3, 2011.

Saleh also said in a press conference held in his Palace late Saturday, that Hamid Al Ahmar funded the march from Taiz to Sanaa.

Saleh said that the  defected general Ali Muhsen has no more than 300 soldiers who  still loyal to him now.

Meanwhile thousands of protesters who reached Sana’a on Saturday after a 4-day march from Taiz clashed with the security forces that opened fire with guns, water cannons and tear gas when the protesters insisted on changing their route and decided to march to the presidential complex. Medical officials said at least three protesters were killed, including a woman.
The organizers of the march, that is called the March of Life,  said it aimed to put pressure on the country's new government not to grant Saleh immunity from prosecution.

The ruling party had accused the opposition of preaching the GCC brokered reconciliation deal by organizing this march that contradicted with the peace deal.  The violence underlined the continuing turmoil in Yemen even after Saleh signed a U.S.- and Saudi-backed deal last month by which he handed his powers to his vice president and committed to step down completely in return for immunity.