Yemen Information Minister Escapes Assassination Bid

Yemen's newly appointed Information Minister Ali Ahmed al-Amrani escaped an assassination attempt on Tuesday as he was leaving government headquarters in Sanaa, a government official told Agence France Presse.

"Three bullets targeted Amrani's car as he left the government headquarters following a cabinet meeting," the official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The minister, a member of the opposition named to the post in December as part of a deal that will see President Ali Abdullah Saleh officially quit on February 21, was unhurt.

Amrani was a member of Saleh's General People's Congress who joined the opposition along with several other party members last March in protest over a deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests by the president's loyalists.

The attack is the first on government officials since a unity government was formed on December 7 under the Gulf-brokered power transfer deal that gave an equal number of seats to the GPC and opposition.

Saleh is in the United States for medical treatment after being seriously wounded in a bombing at the presidential palace in Sanaa in June.

In November, after 10 months of bloody protests, he signed a deal by which he transferred constitutional powers to his deputy Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi who is the sole candidate for next month's presidential polls.