Winners tighten hold on Yemeni capital

Press, 27 January 1986, Page 10

Winners tighten hold on Yemeni capital

NZPA-Reuter Aden A semblance of normality returned to Aden yesterday as leaders of a Marxist faction that overthrew the South Yemini President, Ali Nasser Muhammad, consolidated their control of the city. In the neighbouring North Yemeni town of Ta’z, a radio station was heard saying that it was brodcasting on behalf of Mr Nasser Muhammad. It said that forces loyal to him were regrouping and repairing a counter-offen-sive on the capital. The radio apparently was broadcasting from Abyan, Mr Nasser Muhammad’s home region, 160 km east of Aden. Mr Nasser Muham-

mad’s opponents said on Friday that they had stripped him of his titles. The central committee of the ruling Yemeni Socialist Party appointed the Prime Minister, Mr Haider Abubaker Attas, as interim head of State in his place. Mr Attas, a 49-year-old civil engineer, returned at the week-end from Moscow, where he had been awaiting the resolution of the armed conflict. Aden airport, closed since last week, reopened for daytime flights. Telecommunications were restored but there was no sign if Government offices and banks would reopen tnriav.

The Socialist Party’s central committee on Fri-

day accused Mr Nasser Muhammad of "masterminding a criminal bloody plot to physically liquidate the party’s collective leadership and establish a terrorist dictatorial regime.” The Defence Minister, Salem Mosleh Qassem, and his predecessor, Ali Ahmed Hassan Antar, were among about 50 officials killed in the fighting, a party statement said. Mr Attas was quoted by Aden radio as saying on his return from Moscow that relations with the Soviet Union — which has expressed its continued support for South Yemen’s Marxist Government — were "becoming stronger day by day.”