SANA'A // In the background of Yemen's turmoil, a power struggle is playing out that punctuates how tribal culture dominates this ancient land and may shape its uncertain future.
Behind the chaos and carnage are three men; former allies, each with his own army, and members of the same powerful tribal group.
Mr Saleh, along with Yemen's most feared military strongman, General Ali Moshen, and Sheikh Sadeq al Ahmar, the most prominent tribal leader, are all members of the Hashed tribal confederation.
Analysts say rivalries and discord among the three leaders has eclipsed what began as a pro-reform uprising and now threatens to turn Yemen into a warlord battleground.
Tribes have ruled Yemen for thousands of years and tribal customs still define society and politics.
Dr Khaleb Mohammed, a Yemeni historian and tribal chief, said: "Laws in Yemen are not practised. People have no trust in courts. The strong defeats the weak in the Yemeni law. But in tribalism, all are equal and no one is favoured over the other."
The Hashed is a league of nine Sunni tribes that together represent at least six million of Yemen's 27 million people. It is the country's second-largest tribal bloc, behind its long-time rival the Bakeel tribes with some 11 million members.
Nabil Bukairi, the director of the Abaad Research Center in Sana'a, said: "Tribes have always been on the top of the political ladder in Yemen. They are also the majority; more than 75 per cent of Yemenis come from a tribal background.
"Tribes are known to be the fiercest and most powerful people in Yemen, and they are also the wealthiest."
The Hashed, who trace their roots back 900 years, have held the top slots in government since Mr Saleh seized power in 1979, when the Bakeel-backed president Ahmad al Ghasmi was assassinated after six months in power. Mr Ghasmi's predecessor, also linked to the Bakeel, was also murdered.
The deepening rift in the Hashed hierarchy, in the words of government spokesman Abdu Ganadi, "is a curse on the Yemeni people."
"The Hashed should solve their problems in the rural areas where they live and not in the capital by damaging public property and occupying ministries," Mr Ganadi said.
As it stands, the respective armies of General Mohsen and Sheikh al Ahmar are battling Mr Saleh's soldiers in the streets of Sana'a, storming state buildings and trading artillery salvos with government positions. There have been no reports that the anti-Saleh camps are united or how relations stand between General Mohsen and the sheikh. Both men have been accused by the government of launching Friday's rocket attack on the presidential palace that injured Mr Saleh and other officials. Sheikh al Ahmar has denied any involvment; General Mohsen has not publicly commented.
Mr Saleh, 69, who rose from poverty through military service, is a cagey and charismatic leader supported by a network of nepotism and patronage. Ahmad, one of Mr Saleh's six sons and 10 daughters, commands the Republican Guards, a force of roughly 35,000. Mr Saleh controls the remainder of Yemen's army and air force. He remains popular with many Yemenis and he still has allies among military and tribal leaders.
"President Saleh knew the powers of the tribes, and that is why he has allied with them and will continue building links with them until his last day," Mr Bukairi said.
Like General Mohsen, 66, Mr Saleh is a member of the Sanhan branch of the Hashed. The two men are from the same village, Beit al Ahmar, and have worked closely together since 1965. General Mohsen, said to be a quiet and deeply religious career soldier, also has strong links with tribal leaders as well as Islamists.
After more than three decades as Mr Saleh's military enforcer and close confidante, General Mohsen defected to the protest movement along with thousands of his troops in March when government forces opened fire on protesters. General Moshen is said to command about 40,000 troops.
Sheikh al Ahmar, 55, who at first tried to mediate between the government and protesters, ordered his armed tribesmen to protect demonstrators from government crackdowns in June. His forces have since poured into the capital, many with rocket-powered grenades and mortars, and fought street battles against Mr Saleh's troops. Sheikh al Ahmar has promised that tens of thousands of fighters from his tribe will soon be in the city.
Abdul Ghani al Salami, an expert in Yemeni tribalism, said: "Al Ahmar family united Hashed under one leader since the late 1800s, while the Bakeel bickered among their household."
Mr Salami said friction within Hashed started when Mr Saleh tried to usurp leadership of the tribe from the Ahmar clan, who represent the Amran branch of the Hashed.
The conflict intensified after the death of Sheikh Abdullah Hussein al Ahmar, the current sheikh's father, in 2007. The late Sheikh al Ahmar supported Mr Saleh's presidency, tribal experts said, and political and economic interests were divided evenly between the Hashed leaders, including Gen Mohsen.
Analysts said that after so long in power, Mr Saleh began to view himself as Yemen's supreme leader. By 2003, Mr Saleh hinted at plans to transfer power to his family at the expense of General Mohsen and the Al Ahmar family.
Mohammed Zabara, an official in Mr Saleh's ruling General People Congress party, said: "President Saleh did not like the arrogance of the Ahmar sons and decided to limit it. He took away many of the privileges they had and handed them over to his sons and nephews."
Mr Zabara said this move forced the general and Sheikh al Ahmar to indirectly work against Mr Saleh.
Although General Mohsen was the closest adviser to Mr Saleh, his loyalty was to his tribal leader and not his president.
Mohammed Khobari, an expert in Yemeni affairs, said: "The general feels that he is the one who put Saleh on the presidency seat 30 years ago and will not accept being a follower of Saleh's son, whom the general sees as a selfish kid."
Ali Jaradi, the editor-in-chief of the independent Ahale newspaper, said the general was frustrated by Mr Saleh's decision to create new military and bodyguard units directly under the command of his family.
"More than 40,000 troops are under the control of General Mohsen and Saleh wanted his relatives to compete with him," Mr Jaradi said.
"Saleh did not want to share the glory of Hashed with anyone."
Sheikh al Ahmar and his nine brothers also felt slighted by Mr Saleh's power grab. This was a mistake considering the brothers' wide-ranging reach in business and politics. Among their many holdings are a phone company, a bank, a TV network and franchises for the fast-food chain KFC and the Western-style Spinneys supermarkets.
The family investments stretch into the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which pays the Hashed each month to help guard the Saudi-Yemeni border. Sheikh al Ahmar reportedly collected as much as $5 million (Dh18mn) a month.
Dr Khaled Akwa, a political science professor at Sana'a University, said the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council have been forced to take sides in the Hashed feud after Mr Saleh reneged three times on a GCC-brokered transfer of power proposal.
"The Ahmar family built strong links with Doha after Saleh angered the Qatar regime," Mr Akwa said.
In recent weeks, however, Mr Saleh has capitalised on the chaos and attempted to sideline the Al Ahmar brothers even more.
Ali Abdul Jabbar, the president of the Dar Ashraf Research Centre, said: "Saleh destroyed everything owned by the Ahmar family over the last month. They were degraded and the tribe needed a strong retaliation message," adding that the as-yet-unattributed rocket attack on the presidential palace may have been just this kind of "message".
As the Hashed leaders battle among themselves, the tribe's enemies are salivating on the sidelines. Houthi militants in the north, who fought six wars again the Yemeni government over the past seven years, consider the Hashed as the only force between them and their quest for autonomy.
Houthis, who belong to the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, feel that the Hashed have oppressed non-Sunnis.
Hasan Zaid, the general secretary of the Zaidi-backed Haq party, said the Hashed were instrumental in ending the pro-Zaidi Imamate rule in Yemen in 1962.
"After the Hashed ends the conflict from within, they will be forced to co-operate with the Zaidi force in Yemen," Mr Zaid said. "If both sides don't co-operate, war between them is a possibility."
Leaders of Yemen's southern Islamist movement have placed the blame on Mr Saleh alone.
Hatem Abu Hatem, a senior Nasserite leader from south Yemen, said: "Saleh was the president not Hashed. If he allowed them to take the wealth of the country he is to blame. He tried to weaken everyone in Yemen in favour of his family. Yemenis did not accept it and that is why the country is seeking a revolution."
Protest leaders who remain entrenched in Sana'a's main square have been dismayed that the Hashed tribe stalwarts, General Mohsen and Sheikh al Ahmar, have hijacked their once-peaceful protests and altered its image with violence.
Ali Shaibani, a youth leader in Sana'a, said: "We don't have a problem with anyone joining the Yemeni revolution but the general and Sadeq Ahmar joined the revolution to lead and not to follow." Mr Shaibani said that if the Hashed leaders did not join the Yemeni revolution it would have succeeded a long time ago.
"We were close to victory that is why the Hashed leaders joined the youth revolution. They always want a piece of everything in Yemen," he said.
Perhaps more concerning for those behind the protest, is whether Yemen's deeply tribal traditions can make way for a modern future.
Najeeb Mujalli, a youth activist in Sana'a, said: "In Egypt, when [ousted president Hosni] Mubarak was threatened he had no one to support him, only his wife. In Yemen, tribes support their members under all circumstances. That is why change is difficult in Yemen with the existence of tribal culture.
"The youth leaders are not against tribalism but we feel that most tribesmen put the law in their own hands. In the youth revolution, we want a state of law and we want the tribes to accept that."
But Mr Mohammed, the Yemeni historian, believes that despite the struggle within the Hashed confederation, tribes will continue to play a vital role in the nation's development.
"If you look at the protesters in Sana'a, more than 50 per cent of the people are from tribes. They are with the revolution and want change. Tribes only resort to tribal law because they did not find an alternative in Yemen," he said.
"It will be the tribes that will lead pro-democracy change in Yemen, that and time."
Even so, Ahmad Bahri, an opposition official, said that Yemen would only be safe when "the three-headed dragon" of the Hashed leadership - Mr Saleh, General Mohsen and Sheikh al Ahmar - put down their guns and their differences and allow Yemenis the chance to rule themselves.
"These three have caused the crises in Yemen and if they leave Yemen will prosper," Mr Bahri said. "The time has come to say 'no' to tribalism and 'yes' to democracy."
* With additional reporting from Mohammed al Qadhi and the Associated Press