The following is a timeline of the 2011–2012 Yemeni revolution from 3 June through 22 September 2011. The Yemeni revolution was a series of major protests, political tensions, and armed clashes taking place in Yemen, which began in January 2011 and were influenced by concurrent protests in the region. Hundreds of protesters, members of armed groups, army soldiers and security personnel were killed, and many more injured, in the largest protests to take place in the South Arabian country for decades.
The uprising entered a dramatic new phase with an apparent assassination attempt against President Ali Abdullah Saleh and other top Yemeni officials opposed by the protest movement. Saleh spent more than three and a half months undergoing treatment in Saudi Arabia for severe burns and shrapnel injuries, but survived the bombing that claimed the lives of several others in his inner circle. During this period of the uprising, Yemen was nominally led by Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi while Saleh was convalescent in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital.
Timeline
January–May
June
3 June Shelling reportedly hit the presidential palace and the area surrounding it. A blast in a mosque used by high-ranking Yemeni officials to pray left President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Mujawar, Speaker Yahya Ali al-Raee, and several other government officials wounded and killing several Yemeni soldiers and guards, as well as an imam. The fate of Saleh was not immediately clear, with opposition media briefly circulating a rumor that he had died. Initial reports stated that the mosque was destroyed when a rocket struck it, but later reports implicated a planted bomb in the attack that left Yemen's leadership in a state of confusion.
4 June Saleh left Yemen for Saudi Arabia, apparently for medical treatment. He handed over control to Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was constitutionally empowered to serve as acting president until Saleh returned.
5 June Yemeni officials acknowledged that Saleh suffered second-degree burns on his face, neck, and chest, as well as serious shrapnel wounds. One official commented to media that he was "lucky to be alive". Thirty-one of Saleh's family members reportedly flew from Yemen to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, to be close to the convalescent president.
6 June Conflicting reports as to the status of Taiz were aired in media. According to some witnesses, Yemeni security forces withdrew from the country's second-largest city, leaving it in the hands of armed tribesmen and protesters. The Yemeni government denied Taiz was out of its control.
7 June At least one media outlet reported two protesters were shot dead and two more were injured by elements of the Republican Guard in Taiz, suggesting the reports of security forces withdrawing earlier in the week were at least partially mistaken. In Sanaa, the government rejected an offer by the Joint Meeting Parties to hold a dialogue with the opposition, calling it "ridiculous" and saying no talks could proceed without the express authorization and involvement of Saleh. In response, thousands of protesters massed outside of the acting president's residence to pressure him into forming a transitional council and agreeing to a plan for a transfer of power and democratization.
8 June Yemeni security officials speaking on the condition of anonymity admitted that parts of Taiz were under the control of anti-government tribesmen. Fighting apparently quieted in the city. Despite previous statements that it would not hold a dialogue with anti-government factions, Yemen's ruling party opened reportedly unprecedented talks with the Joint Meeting Parties, the country's main opposition coalition. Meanwhile, Saleh's personal aides said he is recovering with some minor difficulties, but other reports said that burns cover 40 percent of his entire body and he may take months to recover. Some doctors unaffiliated with the Saudi physicians administering to Saleh in Riyadh suggested that the president's injuries were likely to prove mortal, considering his age and the extent of the physical damage to his body—an informal prognosis quickly seized upon by some of Saleh's domestic critics and opponents. Many protesters said they were surprised and angered when troops under the command of defected Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a relative and ally of Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, used live ammunition and batons to disperse anti-government demonstrators in Sanaa holding a planned 24-hour sit-in. The sit-in was broken up with only five hours to go. No deaths, but some injuries, were reported. Hundreds of protesters marched later in the afternoon to condemn the attack and affirm their demands for a transitional government.
9 June Supporters of Saleh celebrated in Sanaa after the government affirmed that the president would return to Yemen and resume his duties. Officials reportedly claimed his injuries were "minor". Meanwhile, the United Kingdom called for the resumption of GCC mediation efforts while Saleh was sidelined. The New York Times reported that the Obama administration had stepped up covert military actions in the country targeting Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, filling a vacuum created by the preoccupation of much of Yemen's armed forces."What we're watching", Jay Kernis. CNN. 9 June 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2011 In South Africa, parliamentary questions arose over South African–produced armoured vehicles reportedly turning up in the possession of Yemeni rebels who defected from the military."Radebe 'didn't know' about Ratels ", News 24. 9 June 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2011
10 June Supporters and opponents of the regime planned rival demonstrations in Sanaa for after noon prayers. About 100,000 anti-government protesters flooded Change Square, chanting slogans calling for a transitional government and for Saleh to be put on trial. Sadiq al-Ahmar led a large protest through the square, parading the bodies of Hashid fighters killed in clashes with Saleh loyalists the previous week. Protesters also reportedly gathered in Taiz and elsewhere in Yemen, with tens of thousands marching in Yemen's second-largest city to demand the formation of a transitional council.
11 June A source claiming knowledge of the situation at the hospital in Riyadh where Saleh and other injured Yemeni officials are undergoing treatment said the president's health was in such poor condition that he was unable to meet with a number of ministers who sought a bedside audience with him over the past week. According to this anonymous source, Saleh was continuing to experience difficulty breathing, and Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Mujawar, who purportedly also remains in serious condition, may have experienced serious and irreversible damage to his vision.
13 June Al Jazeera reported that sources within the opposition movement said opposition leaders had met with Acting President Hadi to discuss a transition of power. They voiced concerns that Saleh and his sons wield too much power in the country and said they discussed ways the government and the opposition could work together to expand the truce in Sanaa to the rest of Yemen, as well as ensure humanitarian aid could flow throughout the country to those who need it. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence again said Saleh would return and deliver a public address, and some government officials reportedly cast aspersions on a deal for a transfer of power while Saleh remained out of the country.
17 June A top Saudi official told AFP that Saleh would not return to Yemen. However, Abdu al-Janadi, Yemen's deputy information minister asserted that Saleh would return to Yemen "within coming days," adding that "The president's health is improving continuously."
24 June Yemeni police open fire on tens of thousands of protesters in the country's south, killing at least one. Six people were also injured in Aden when protesters clashed with security forces armed with tanks, according to a medical official.
26 June Ahmed al-Sufi, President Saleh's media secretary, announces that President Saleh will make a media appearance within the next 48 hours.
29 June President Saleh made a statement through his foreign minister, saying that a dialogue should begin with the opposition and that he was willing to consider a Gulf-brokered transition of power.
30 June More details emerge regarding Saleh's condition. Vice-President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi told reporters that he had seen the President immediately after the attack with a piece of wood between his ribs and burns to his chest, arms, and face. Hadi added that he was uncertain whether Saleh will ever return to Yemen.
July
3 July Police attempted to disperse a crowd of several hundred Eritrean refugees protesting outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' office in Sanaa by firing tear gas into the air. The refugees were demonstrating over concerns that they were endangered by the instability in the Yemeni capital.
4 July One protester was injured by security officers breaking up a second demonstration by Eritrean refugees outside the Sanaa UNHCR office.
5 July About 700 Eritreans again picketing the UNHCR office in Sanaa were dispersed by aggrieved security forces, leaving one child dead and five adults either injured or dead as well. A Yemeni colonel who spoke to media justified the attack by saying the protest disrupted the activities of the UNHCR office staff and "made chaos".
6 July Yemen state news organisation Saba announced that forty al-Qaeda militants have been killed in airstrikes in Abyan during the past two days. It also announces that two soldiers were killed during a counter-attack against militants who stormed an army camp.
7 July A speech recorded by Saleh in Saudi Arabia was televised on national television in Yemen. Saleh appeared to have suffered severe injuries, with his skin noticeably darker, his arms heavily bandaged, and his movement seeming greatly limited. The speech lasted just a few minutes, but in it, Saleh again championed the concept of power-sharing in a unity government while claiming that protesters and the opposition movement had an "incorrect understanding of democracy". Reaction to the speech on the streets of Sanaa and other Yemeni cities was mixed, with supporters lighting off fireworks and firing guns in the air to celebrate and protesters expressing disappointment with the speech. One to four people were reported to have died in the ensuing trajectory of the gunfire.
8 July Rival demonstrations were organised in Sanaa following Saleh's speech. An article written by staff of TIME magazine in Aden was published in the U.S.-based newsweekly suggesting that South Yemen could secede from the Republic of Yemen within days or weeks. The article quoted the secretary-general of the Sons' League Party as saying that South Yemen, which confederated with North Yemen in 1990, could secede and the government would not attempt to stop it.
9 July Human Rights Watch said that Yemeni soldiers were fighting Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants in Abyan after losing control of the provincial capital Zinjibar. The same day a Yemeni army officer and two of his subordinates were killed, and two civilians were wounded, in an ambush in Daleh near Aden. During the night Republican Guard shelling in Taiz caused the deaths of at least two civilians and 10 other injuries. Amid protests in the city calling for Saleh's ouster, women were also holding candlelight vigils.
10 July Al Arabiya reported that Saleh planned to return to Yemen on 17 July, accompanied by a Saudi medical team, to celebrate 33 years in power. Despite previous reports that Saudi authorities would not permit Saleh to leave the country, the story made no mention of opposition from Riyadh.
13 July