SANAA (AFP) - Yemen"s Ali Abdullah Saleh is in poor condition suffering breathing problems in a Saudi hospital, an informed source said on Saturday, a week after a bomb blast wounded the embattled president.
Uncertainty over the veteran leader"s health came amid fierce fighting between Yemeni troops and suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen in south Yemen where 10 soldiers and 21 militants were killed.
"The information we have says that President Saleh is still in bad condition, mainly as he suffers problems in the lungs and respiration," the source, a Yemeni in Riyadh, told AFP requesting anonymity.
Saleh was flown to Riyadh on June 4 in a Saudi medical aircraft for treatment a day after an explosion ripped through a mosque where he was praying inside his Sanaa presidential compound.
"What confirms this (Saleh"s bad state of health) is that many Yemeni ministers tried to visit him and their requests were turned down," said the Yemeni source.
Yemeni officials have insisted Saleh is speedily recovering.
A Saudi official told AFP on Wednesday that Saleh"s health was "stable" and dismissed reports of a deterioration in his health as "baseless." Saleh has not been seen in public since the attack.
Several officials, including caretaker Prime Minister Ali Mohammad Mujawar and head of parliament Abdulaziz Abdulghani, were wounded in the attack and are also being treated in Saudi Arabia