Yemen's Prez Hurt in Rocket Hit

CNN reports:

A Muslim preacher and a handful of bodyguards died in the "treacherous and cowardly" shelling on Friday of the mosque at Yemen's presidential palace, an ambush that also hit the president and prime minister, government sources said.

The "outrageous attack" killed Sheikh Ali Mohsen al-Matari and three guards and injured a number of officials and officers, according to Yemen's official news agency SABA, citing a source in the office of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Attackers assaulted the mosque as the president and other senior officials gathered for weekly Friday Muslim prayers, the source told SABA.

The attack comes amid fears of all-out civil war in Yemen, as government forces and people alleged to be tribesmen slugged it out in the capital. Anti-government demonstrators upset over what they regards as political oppression and government corruption have poured onto the streets of the impoverished country for months to demand that Saleh step down.

There had been initial reports that Saleh was killed. But the president sustained a slight injury to the head in an attack on the mosque in the presidential palace, and he is fine, a senior government official told CNN. The president plans to address the media later Friday.