Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president, has arrived in Riyadh for medical treatment, a day after he was injured in an attack on his compound, the Saudi royal court said in a statement.

"The Yemeni president has arrived along with officials and citizens who had received different injuries for treatment in Saudi Arabia," the royal court said.

Saleh will be treated for wounds received on Friday in a rocket attack on his presidential palace - an assault that marked a major escalation in a conflict building towards full civil war.

 

Al Jazeera has learned he had arrived at King Khalid Air Base in Riyadh and been transferred to a military hospital.

The embattled leader suffered "burns and scratches to the face and chest," an official said after the ruling General People's Congress said he was "lightly wounded in the back of the head."

Meanwhile, sources told Al Jazeera that vice-president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has taken over as acting president and supreme commander of the armed forces.

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