Sanaa: Yemen's newly appointed Information
Minister Ali Ahmed al-Amrani escaped an assassination attempt
on Tuesday as he was leaving government headquarters in Sanaa, a
government official said.
"Three bullets targeted Amrani's car as he left the
government headquarters following a cabinet meeting," the
official said, requesting anonymity.
The minister, a member of the opposition named to the
post in December as part of a deal that will see President Ali
Abdullah Saleh officially quit on February 21, was unhurt.
Amrani was a member of Saleh's General People's Congress
who joined the opposition along with several other party
members last March in protest over a deadly crackdown on
anti-regime protests by the president's loyalists.
The attack is the first on government officials since a
unity government was formed on December 7 under the
Gulf-brokered power transfer deal that gave an equal number of
seats to the GPC and opposition.
Saleh is in the United States for medical treatment after
being seriously wounded in a bombing at the presidential
palace in Sanaa in June.
In November, after 10 months of bloody protests, he
signed a deal by which he transferred constitutional powers to
his deputy Abdrabuh Mandur Hadi who is the sole candidate for
next month's presidential polls.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 22:20