The attack on the presidential palace, June 3rd 2011, struck the president, prime minister, governor of the capital Sanaa, and many other high ranking officials, and killed at least seven close bodyguards to the president. This clip (video 1) has been released for the first time to mark first the anniversary of the attack. The president was severly burned and departed with his officials for Saudi hospitals, and was ousted from the presidency shortly after.

There has not been an independent verifiable investigation into the attack, but the first reports indicated that this was a precision missile attack from outside the compound. However, during the investigation and for unknown reasons this account was apparantly changed to an attack with an IED inside the building. However, some video evidence shows penetration of the walls by missile and the evidence held by the investigations is secret and unverifiable. No one has to date claimed responsibility for the attack which sealed the fate of Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The background to the attack (video 2), the president and his son Ahmad Ali, leader of the Republican Guards, had intensely shelled residential areas of the capital Sanaa for several weeks. Indiscriminate shells, rockets, anti-aircraft fire, tank fire, and precision guided missiles were all used killing countless people and destroying whole neighbourhoods as the president became more extreme in order to cling to power in the face of a popular uprising. One of the worst affected areas was Hasabah, where the president started the conflict by sending a precision missile into the living room of his one-time closest ally Sheikh Sadiq Al-Ahmar, the highest tribal sheikh in the country. This missile struck a meeting of important people who had gathered to discuss a solution to the troubles of Yemen, penetrating walls to finally explode where the people sat and where the chip had been placed by an agent.

Before the attack on the presidential palace, the Republican Guards were shelling the home of Hamid Al-Ahmar, the billionaire brother of Sheikh Sadiq Al-Ahmar, and the home of General Ali Mohsin leader of the First Armoured Division. In this way the fighting had spread across Sanaa to the diplomatic quarter where the residential homes were located.

Video 1: Attack by unkown people on presidential palace which wounded Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Video 2: Destruction of home of Sheikh Sadiq Al-Ahmar by loyalist Republican Guards during the weeks preceding attack on president.

Articles: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13638787

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/07/ali-abdullah-saleh-hospital-palace-attack-_n_872426.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/world/middleeast/04yemen.html?pagewanted=all