The soldiers of Yemeni defected army captured the intelligence chief of the government's elite Republican Guards on Thursday, officials said.
"Khaled al-Sunainy, the intelligence chief of the Republican Guards commanded by outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh's son, was captured from his house in western Sanaa on Thursday evening by soldiers of the defected First Armored Division, who moved him to a jail of their military base," two government officials told Xinhua.
"There is a big problem between the Republican Guards and the defected army's general Ali Mohsenal-Ahmar," one of the officials said without providing further details.
Meanwhile, the ruling party's website accused the dissident general of plotting to fail the planned presidential election that was set in accordance to a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal. However, officials of the defected army declined to comment.
Elsewhere, a local security official in southern province of al- Dhalee told Xinhua that unidentified gunmen bombed the provincial headquarters of the Supreme Committee for Elections Thursday night. No casualties were reported.
Saleh left for Oman on Sunday, preparing to go to the United State for medical treatment of injuries he sustained in a bomb attack on his Sanaa presidential compound in June, 2011.
Saleh's travel came one day after the Yemeni parliament passed a law granting him a complete immunity and protecting his aides from political motivated cases, as part of the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative signed by Saleh and the opposition in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 23, 2011.
Under the deal, which was aimed at ending the 11-month protests demanding an end to Saleh's 33-year rule, the parliament unanimously nominated Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi as the sole presidential candidate for the election scheduled on Feb. 21.
In a farewell speech on Sunday, in which Saleh announced his medical travel to the United States, the outgoing president said he will return for the inauguration of Hadi as the next president.