Six Troops Killed in Qaida Attack East of Sanaa

A suspected al-Qaida attack on an army convoy killed six Yemeni soldiers and wounded four others on Sunday in Marib, east of the capital Sanaa, a military official said.

He said two vehicles were seized by the assailants in the attack about three kilometers (two miles) north of Marib.

"The attack was led by Aaed al-Shabwani, the most prominent wanted al-Qaida leader in Marib," a tribal source said.

Meanwhile, Yemen's embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he does not want to cling on to power and warned that only dialogue can save the country he has ruled for three decades from sliding into civil war.

"I have already said and I now reiterate that I am not clinging on to power," Saleh said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television, a transcript of which was published by Yemen's state news agency Saba on Sunday.

Saleh has reportedly offered to step down by the end of 2011, a proposal snubbed by the opposition. But his ruling party on Friday said he should serve out his current term until a scheduled presidential election in 2013.

Defections have multiplied since a bloodbath in Sanaa on March 18 when 52 protesters were gunned down by Saleh loyalists, drawing widespread international condemnation.