Dubai: Yemen’s ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh has had a successful operation at a Sana’a hospital after a Russian medical team was flown in to perform it, government sources said on Saturday.
The Russian team arrived in Sana’a two days ago and operated on Saleh on Friday for wounds he sustained in an assassination attempt in 2011.
Saleh’s General People’s Congress Party said the procedure was successful, and that his condition was stable.
Saleh was severely wounded in an attack on the presidential palace in Sana’a in June 2011. He went to the United States for treatment on one occasion, before a travel ban was imposed.
The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Saleh in 2014, accusing him of threatening peace and obstructing Yemen’s political process, subjecting him to a global travel ban and an asset freeze.
Government sources told Reuters the Russian team had arrived with approval from the Saudi-led Arab alliance but did not reveal the precise nature of the surgery.
Saleh ruled Yemen for 34 years, but was forced from power after pro-democracy protests in 2012.
He formed a surprise alliance with the Al Houthi rebels when they seized Sana’a in 2014.
