Yemen, Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A President Is Wounded

Video of the destroyed Presidential Mosque in the Yemeni capital Sana'a

2130 GMT: Media are reporting tonight that the Vice President, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, is now acting President and Supreme Commander of the armed forces.

Meanwhile, Abdel Rahman Ba Fadel, an opposition member of the Yemeni parliament, has told Al Jazeera, "A medical team arrived from Saudi Arabia but there is a plane ready to take him [President Saleh] there if they fail to treat him in Yemen."

2035 GMT: A Syrian activist has told Al Jazeera that the violence of regime forces against protests in Jisr al-Shoughour in northwestern Syria (see 1545 GMT) was "beyond imagination".

Injured protesters were taken to Turkey's Antakya, 25 kilometres (16 miles) away.

The activist said, "A lot of people were injured and some were killed. One lost his kidney in the hospital in Turkey. Others were hit in their heads, [including a] woman over 100 years old."

He added, "Any injured...cannot be accepted by a hospital in Syria. We try to transfer them to Turkey [because] if he's accepted by a hospital in Syria he will definitely be arrested."

2010 GMT: Extremely graphic video has been posted of the bodies of several men atop the Karak Mosque in Daraa in Syria.

1945 GMT: Amidst a cacophony of conflicting reports, the Associated Press reports that Yemen's President Saleh has accepted an offer from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to travel there for medical treatment for burns and shrapnel wounds.

However, Saleh had not yet left the Yemeni capital Sana'a by Saturday night.

1925 GMT: Minutes after at least six blasts were heard in the Libyan capital, State TV declared, "The city of Tripoli is undergoing attack now by the colonialist crusader aggressors."

1715 GMT: Ahram Online summarises last night's incidents in Cairo that led to a confrontation between a crowd and security forces outside a police station.

Chauffeur Mohamed Saeed reportedly died after a fight with ‎a senior police officer outside the station. Hundreds of people, including his relatives and fellow drivers, accused the police of ‎torturing him to death. ‎They demanded to see the body and tried to ‎force their way in, setting a police car on fire in the process as Molotov cocktails were ‎thrown at the station.‎

Security sources denied any foul play and said Saeed seemed to have collapsed of low ‎blood pressure.

‎

1705 GMT: The Associated Press reports, regime officials and opposition tribesmen, that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has mediated a one-week cease-fire between the forces of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and those of the opposition.

1635 GMT: Protest in northern Hama in Syria today:

1630 GMT: Looting at the Supreme Council building in Taiz in Yemen today:

1620 GMT: Protest today in the Barzeh area of Damascus at the funeral of a demonstrator killed on Friday:

1555 GMT: Protest in the Syrian coastal city of Lattakia on Friday:

1550 GMT: An opposition leader and regime official say Yemeni police and military units have withdrawn from the southern city of Taiz.

Up to 50 people have reportedly been killed in clashes with security forces this week.

1545 GMT: Syrian activists claim military helicopters have been shooting randomly upon people in Jisr al-Shaghour in the north near the Turkish border, killing about 10. They also assert that the army has been deployed next to the national hospital, and tanks have been seen heading toward the city from the direction of the nearby Al-Zawyeh mountain.

The Local Coordinating Committee also claim that thousands of Syrians have marched in the funeral of 13-year-old Mohammad Saleh Alkattam in Deir al Zor, with another 2000 people waiting for the body of 16-year-old Moaz Alrakad. Both teenagers were killed yesterday.

1410 GMT: Two contrasting scenes in claimed footage from Taiz in Yemen today --- in the first clip, cashes between regime forces and opposition tribesmen; in the second, a women's march:

1400 GMT: A diplomatic source has said Russia is evacuating its diplomats from Yemen "on the next flight" to Moscow.

1310 GMT: Egypt's former Minister of Justice, Youssef Boutros-Ghali, has been sentenced in absentia to 30 years in prison for squandering public funds and abuse of other funds.

Boutros-Ghali has also benn order to return 30 million Egyptian pounds ($5.05 million) and to pay an additional 30 million Egyptian pounds in fines.

1245 GMT: We have followed the conflicting reports for the last two hours over the whereabouts of the injured Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh: some sources are declaring that he is among the officials flown to Saudi Arabia for treatment (see 0948 GMT); others, including a Government spokesman, deny that he has left the country.

1200 GMT: Confrontation and gunfire in Hama in Syria on Friday:

1105 GMT: The confrontation in Taiz in Yemen yesterday:

1100 GMT: The Syrian state news agency puts out its "truth" about the death of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khateeb, whose alleged torture and mutilation has elevated anger against the Assad regime:

[On] April 29th after Friday Prayer, people began to gather in some villages of Daraa countryside responding to inciting calls for Jihad, which were taken advantage of by armed groups to attack army, police and security forces and citizens, and set off toward the military housing compound in Said area where al-Khateeb was martyred.

Al-Khateeb, who was found killed in the surrounding of the compound and still unidentified then, was transferred to hospital among the victims....

"Since I am the one who undertook the investigation and the medical check up, I came to know that al-Khateeb died while he was inside the military compound's surrounding from several gunshots without any traces of torture on the body," said Judge [Samer] Abbas, pointing out that al-Khateeb's family can come and know all the details they want.

1055 GMT: Activists report that Internet service has been restored in Syria.

1045 GMT: Palestinian travellers say dozens of angry Gazans have attempted to storm a crossing at Rafah on the Egyptian border but were pushed back.

The confrontation came just a week after Egypt said it was permanently reopening the crossing and lifting travel restrictions on many Gazans.

Several travelers say about 200 people waited to cross into Egypt today but were denied entry. Dozens pushed against a terminal fence, until Hamas forces cordoned off the area.

There have been reports this week that Egypt has pulled back the "permanent" opening of the border, returning to the situation before the downfall of former President Hosni Mubarak.

0955 GMT: There are reports of continued shelling and shooting in Taiz in Yemen.

0948 GMT: Yemeni officials injured in yesterday's attack on the Presidential compound, including the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and the speakers of both houses of Parliament, have been flown to Saudi Arabia for treatment.

0945 GMT: The British Foreign Office is e-mailing nationals in Yemen, urging them to leave the country if possible.

0925 GMT: Journalist Iona Craig from Sana'a in Yemen:

Landlord told me yesterday no prospect of getting water anytime soon. "No fuel, so no water" (to transport it). Great....The price of a debab ride went up twice yesterday in Sana'a. Now double what it was three days ago.

0920 GMT: The Washington Post summarises the case of four Iraqi men who were taken away during pro-reform demonstrations on 27 May. The detentions sparked a protest in Baghdad's Tahrir Square yesterday.

On Thursday, 13 protest organizers were released after they were seized on 28 May. Some of the detainees said security officials took them to a military facility and beat them.

0915 GMT: A march in Abu Saiba in Bahrain last night:

0905 GMT: Video of shelling of the anti-regime demonstration in Taiz in Yemen yesterday:

And claimed footage of wounded protesters:

0900 GMT: Back from a break to find that Syrian activists have posted the names of 73 children killed since the uprising began on 15 March. The activists say the overall death toll is now 1270.

0630 GMT: NATO has used attack helicopters for the first time in the Libyan conflict, striking "military vehicles, military equipment and field forces", according to the commander of the NATO mission.

0535 GMT: A woman and child make their statement in Bahrain:

0530 GMT: Anti-regime protest at a funeral procession in the Bahraini capital Manama

0510 GMT: We predicted at the outset of yesterday that Yemen would headline Friday's events, but we did not foresee how. There were mass demonstrations throughout the country and more clashes, with protesters killed and wounded in Taiz. There was more fighting in the the south in Abyan Province.

And in the capital Sanaa, regime forces and of his opponents --- either the leading tribe Hashed or dissident military commanders --- tried to kill each side's leaders. President Saleh's troops succeeded in demolishing the homes of tribal head Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, political figure Hamid al-Ahmar, and General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar.

But the opposition did far more. Two rockets struck the Presidential compound, as Friday Prayers were being said. The attack injured at least seven top officials, including Saleh, and killing the President's bodyguards and his Friday Prayer leader.

The extent of Saleh's injuries --- both physical and political --- were still unclear at the end of the day. The President finally put out a message, by audio on State TV, after hours of delay. He expressed defiance, promising to put down those who had carried out the assault, but his voice and his position were both shaky.

Yemen led what was, even by recent standards, a very busy Friday. The Bahraini regime appeared to have largely suppressed protest, although there was footage of demonstrations, particularly in Sanabis. In Syria, however, even a cut-off of the Internet could not quell the news, let alone the challenge to the regime and the violence against the protesters.

More than 70 reportedly died in Hama in the most serious of the clashes, but the death toll could rise there and in other locations as information evades the regime's blackouts.

There were also small demonstrations in Iraq and in Egypt, where the evening was punctuated by a heated confrontation outside a Cairo police station. The incident was sparked when police reportedly killed a man under interrogation.

Oh, yes, there was also Libya. On any day earlier in this Arab Spring, the news of significant insurgent successes in the western mountains and around Misurata would have captivated the international media. Today, the advances went almost unnoticed.