Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh
Saleh, who came to power in 1978, is under pressure from all sides to hand over power, but the U.S. and Sausio Arabia have warned that a sudden departure could lead the country to collapse, providing al-Qaida with more political space. In the last few months, the president has given confusing signals about his intentions and pulled back three times from signing a Gulf Arab peace initiative that would have seen him form an opposition-led Cabinet and hand power to his deputy while preparing for early parliamentary and presidential elections. He survived an assassination attempt in June and fled to Riyadh for treatment, only flying back unannounced in September after more than three months out of the country. Reuters

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed on Friday after an attack on the presidential palace, Suhail, a TV station run by the country's opposition, reported.

It said the presidential palace was hit by shells on Friday morning in a fighting between Saleh's forces and a powerful tribal federation, said a report by Reuters.

However, in an immediate rebuttal, the government said Saleh is alive and brushed aside the report as rumor.