SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni opposition groups and protest leaders have formed a national council to step up pressure on Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh to relinquish power.
Mass protests calling on Saleh to step down have been roiling Yemen for months. In June, Saleh was badly wounded in an attack on his palace compund.
Salem Mohammed Bassindwa, a top opposition figure, says youth groups and political parties named 143 council members to represent the people, a rare show of unity.
"This is a revolutionary council aimed at toppling the rule of the (Saleh) family and the remnants of this regime," Bassindwa said Wednesday.
This comes after Saleh appeared on TV vowing to return from Saudi Arabia, where he taken for treatment of severe burns and injkuriews from the June attack.
