Following the rebel attack on the Presidential Palace yesterday that injured President Saleh and other high ranking government officials, the dictator may have taken a powder and lit off for Saudi Arabia.

Reuters:

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, wounded in an attack in his compound, was reported by al Arabiya television Saturday to have left for Saudi Arabia, but a Yemeni official and Saudi source denied he had gone.

Any departure by Saleh could make it extremely difficult to him to return to Yemen where he is fighting a four-month uprising against his rule that has brought the impoverished country Arabian Peninsula country to the brink of civil war.

Yemen's state TV said six officials, including the prime minister and the speakers of both houses of parliament, have gone for treatment at hospitals in its Saudi neighbor.

Gulf and global powers, including Saudi Arabia have been pushing Saleh to sign a deal to step down. Leaving the country, even for medical treatment, could be seen as the first step in a transfer of leadership.

This is the problem with covering events in the Middle East. Which reported facts are true, which are rumor, and which are made up to make someone look bad?

If the PM, who was said to have been seriously wounded in the attack, is in Saudi Arabia there is a better than even chance that Saleh is with him. We'll probably know in the next 24 hours whether the next stage in the Yemen Spring will begin; the fight for power in a country where terrorists are using the civil war to gain a stranglehold on large areas of the country.