Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh was slighlty wounded in the back of the head along with his Premier and other officials when shells fired by dissident tribesmen smashed into the Presidential palace yesterday, as Yemen teetered towards civil war.

Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar was also wounded, and medics later said he was suffering from burns to his face.

A source close to the Presidency said Deputy Prime Minister General Rashad al-Alimi was “critically wounded” when shells hit the mosque inside the presidential palace compound. Officials said Parliament chief Yahya al-Raie was also critically hurt, and the wounded included Mr Saleh’s private secretary Abdo Burji, Abdulaziz Abdulghani, head of Yemen’s consultative council, GPC MP Yasser al-Awadi and Sanaa Governor Noman Duweik.

“Three guards were killed in the attack and several officials and officers and the imam were wounded,” the official Saba news agency reported. A leader of the ruling party said, without elaborating, that Mr Saleh was receiving treatment at the defence ministry hospital in Sanaa. State television in Yemen late yesterday broadcast an audio message from Mr Saleh in which he said he was well after being lightly wounded.

Washington condemned the violence.

“The United States condemns in the strongest terms the senseless acts of violence today in Yemen, including the attack against the Presidential palace compound in Sanaa as well as other attacks in Sanaa and throughout the country,” a White House statement said.

“We call on all sides to cease hostilities immediately and to pursue an orderly and peaceful process of transferring political power as called for in the GCC-brokered agreement,” it said, referring to the regional Gulf Cooperation Council bloc.