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The pro- and anti-regime camps, meanwhile, have called for mass protests on Friday.
Fireworks crackled over Sanaa on Wednesday night as Saleh loyalists took to the streets "feting the success of the surgery... and his transfer from intensive care to a royal suite" in a Riyadh hospital, Saba state news agency said.
The celebratory gunfire wounded about 80 people in the capital alone, medical sources said. Witnesses said there were also casualties in provincial towns.
There have been conflicting reports about Saleh's health since he was flown to Riyadh on Saturday for treatment for wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his presidential compound the previous day. He has not been seen in public since.
The attack itself was an assassination bid, likely an "inside job" using an explosive device, not a mortar or shells as initially reported, US experts said on Thursday.
STRATFOR, a US-based authority on strategic and tactical intelligence issues, said its assessment was based on an evaluation of photographs taken of the blast site, a mosque inside Saleh's presidential compound in Sanaa.
A Saudi official, meanwhile, said the 69-year-old Yemeni president's health was "stable", adding that he was waiting for doctors to "appoint a date for cosmetic surgery."
Saleh would undergo an operation to treat "light burns on the scalp," he said, adding "reports on the deterioration of his health condition are baseless."
Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has insisted Saleh is in good condition and that he will return to Yemen within days.
The Saudi daily Al-Watan quoted the head of the Yemeni community in the kingdom as saying he had visited Saleh in hospital and that he was in good health.
But as Saleh recovers, opponents who have been protesting for his departure since late January are pushing his deputy to establish an interim ruling council to prevent him from returning to power.
Regime supporters have called for a mass gathering under the slogan of "loyalty to Saleh" on Friday in Sanaa to celebrate his recovery while opponents have announced a counter protest.
Saleh has come under mounting international pressure to quit as five months of protests have drawn in powerful tribes, sparking deadly fighting with loyalist security forces on the streets of Sanaa.
The United States has warned the turmoil in Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland is playing into the hands of Al-Qaeda.
Saleh's government has been a key partner in the US 'war on terror" but it has always denied have allowed American strikes on its soil, insisting its own forces carried out the operations.
New fighting erupted around the militant-held Zinjibar late on Wednesday, killing three soldiers and 10 suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen, an officer said.
The defence ministry said 12 Al-Qaeda members were killed in Abyan province, among them three leading figures named as Ammar al-Waeli, Abu Ali al-Harithi and Abu Ayman al-Masri.
Government officials say most of the town of Zinjibar is in the hands of the jihadists but the opposition accuses Saleh of exaggerating the Al-Qaeda threat in a desperate bid to ease foreign pressure on his 33-year rule.
In the flashpoint city of Taez, south of Sanaa, troops killed two members of the "Eagles of Liberty," a local militia that sided with protesters.
Vigilante committees of locals and tribesmen had been deployed around most of Taez, Yemen's second-largest city, after security forces retreated to their bases following clashes.
Security forces killed more than 50 protesters, according to UN figures, in a May 30 crackdown on an anti-regime sit-in at Freedom Square in Taez.
A British minister said on Thursday in Abu Dhabi that Saleh's absence abroad leaves room to push for a transition of power as proposed by Yemen's Arab neighbours in the Gulf.
"We know that the president was badly hurt in the explosion. Those injuries would keep him in hospital for some time," said Alistair Burt, Britain's under-secretary of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
"Our sense is that this provides an opportunity" for a Gulf initiative for Saleh to stand down in return for immunity from prosecution, he said.
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Fireworks crackled over Sanaa on Wednesday night as Saleh loyalists took to the streets "feting the success of the surgery... and his transfer from intensive care to a royal suite" in a Riyadh hospital, Saba state news agency said.
The celebratory gunfire wounded about 80 people in the capital alone, medical sources said. Witnesses said there were also casualties in provincial towns.
There have been conflicting reports about Saleh's health since he was flown to Riyadh on Saturday for treatment for wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his presidential compound the previous day. He has not been seen in public since.
The attack itself was an assassination bid, likely an "inside job" using an explosive device, not a mortar or shells as initially reported, US experts said on Thursday.
STRATFOR, a US-based authority on strategic and tactical intelligence issues, said its assessment was based on an evaluation of photographs taken of the blast site, a mosque inside Saleh's presidential compound in Sanaa.
A Saudi official, meanwhile, said the 69-year-old Yemeni president's health was "stable", adding that he was waiting for doctors to "appoint a date for cosmetic surgery."
Saleh would undergo an operation to treat "light burns on the scalp," he said, adding "reports on the deterioration of his health condition are baseless."
Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has insisted Saleh is in good condition and that he will return to Yemen within days.
The Saudi daily Al-Watan quoted the head of the Yemeni community in the kingdom as saying he had visited Saleh in hospital and that he was in good health.
But as Saleh recovers, opponents who have been protesting for his departure since late January are pushing his deputy to establish an interim ruling council to prevent him from returning to power.
Regime supporters have called for a mass gathering under the slogan of "loyalty to Saleh" on Friday in Sanaa to celebrate his recovery while opponents have announced a counter protest.
Saleh has come under mounting international pressure to quit as five months of protests have drawn in powerful tribes, sparking deadly fighting with loyalist security forces on the streets of Sanaa.
The United States has warned the turmoil in Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland is playing into the hands of Al-Qaeda.
Saleh's government has been a key partner in the US 'war on terror" but it has always denied have allowed American strikes on its soil, insisting its own forces carried out the operations.
New fighting erupted around the militant-held Zinjibar late on Wednesday, killing three soldiers and 10 suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen, an officer said.
The defence ministry said 12 Al-Qaeda members were killed in Abyan province, among them three leading figures named as Ammar al-Waeli, Abu Ali al-Harithi and Abu Ayman al-Masri.
Government officials say most of the town of Zinjibar is in the hands of the jihadists but the opposition accuses Saleh of exaggerating the Al-Qaeda threat in a desperate bid to ease foreign pressure on his 33-year rule.
In the flashpoint city of Taez, south of Sanaa, troops killed two members of the "Eagles of Liberty," a local militia that sided with protesters.
Vigilante committees of locals and tribesmen had been deployed around most of Taez, Yemen's second-largest city, after security forces retreated to their bases following clashes.
Security forces killed more than 50 protesters, according to UN figures, in a May 30 crackdown on an anti-regime sit-in at Freedom Square in Taez.
A British minister said on Thursday in Abu Dhabi that Saleh's absence abroad leaves room to push for a transition of power as proposed by Yemen's Arab neighbours in the Gulf.
"We know that the president was badly hurt in the explosion. Those injuries would keep him in hospital for some time," said Alistair Burt, Britain's under-secretary of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
"Our sense is that this provides an opportunity" for a Gulf initiative for Saleh to stand down in return for immunity from prosecution, he said.
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