Oops is now a Yemeni term

Robert Worth and Laura Kasinof have an article in The New York Times about an attack on the presidential palace in Yemen:

The embattled president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, narrowly survived an attack on the presidential palace when an explosion wounded him and a half-dozen other government officials in a brazen strike sure to intensify Yemen’s bloody civil conflict.
Government spokesmen said Mr. Saleh received only light wounds in the attack, apparently caused by a mortar shell or rocket slamming into a mosque at the presidential compound where the men were praying. But, in a two-minute audio message broadcast later in the day, after hours of heavy fighting in the capital and rumors that he was dead, the president sounded weary and slurred his words as if he might be under sedation. “If you are fine, I am fine,” he said in a message to the public. “God willing we will come out of this ordeal.” Mr. Saleh placed blame squarely on the Ahmar family, the powerful opposition leaders whose tribal militia has been fighting his troops in the heart of the capital for nearly two weeks. He said the attack took place during a cease-fire, as mediation talks were under way. Spokesmen for the Ahmars denied responsibility for the attack.
Immediately after the attack, fighting resumed in the capital as the conflict, which has left more than one hundred people dead, further raised fears that spreading violence would draw in more of Yemen’s heavily armed tribes or a powerful general who has defected from the government.
The bloodshed has already overshadowed months of peaceful protest, with Mr. Saleh resisting intense pressure to step down from demonstrators across Yemen and from the leaders of the United States and neighboring Arab countries. The loss of control in the capital has also loosened the Yemeni government’s tenuous grip outside the city, where jihadists and assorted rebel groups have been emboldened by the political deadlock.
As if to illustrate those dangers, an American airstrike killed a mid-level leader of al-Qaeda in southern Yemen, according to American officials and eyewitnesses.
The attack on the president’s compound struck the front of the mosque just yards away from Mr. Saleh and several other officials, including the prime minister, who was also injured, Yemeni officials said. Seven bodyguards were also killed, Mr. Saleh said in his speech. The apparent precision of the strike and its timing— just as the officials arrived for prayers— set off speculation about the possible use of sophisticated precision-guided weapons. Thousands of government supporters who had been rallying near the presidential palace could be seen fleeing in panic afterward in images on state television.
Soon after the attack, witnesses reported seeing a fusillade of rocket-propelled grenades fired in the direction of Hadda, an upscale neighborhood in southern Sana'a where Hamidh al-Ahmar, the family’s political standard bearer and a longtime rival to Mr. Saleh, has his home.
Mortars then began falling, and continued for eight hours, residents said, shattering buildings and forcing many people to flee. The area is home to many government officials, including allies of Mr. Saleh; until now, it had been spared the violence, which was mostly focused on an Ahmar family mansion in the northern Hasaba neighborhood of Sana'a. By nightfall, the city was mostly quiet again, but many Yemenis agreed that the attack— widely seen there as an assassination attempt— was certain to provoke even deadlier fighting. “I think it’s going to be full escalation,” said Abdelghani al-Eryani, a political analyst in Sana'a who left his home there as mortar shells fired by Mr. Saleh’s troops began landing in his neighborhood. “He will go for blood.”
The fighting has pitted two of Yemen’s most powerful families against each other. Mr. Saleh and his relatives control most of the government’s top military and intelligence posts, and have access to more sophisticated weaponry and highly trained commandos. But the Ahmars, who took sides with the popular uprising after it broke out in January, are the paramount sheiks of the country’s most powerful tribal confederation. They are enormously wealthy, and have helped subsidize the protesters at the continuous sit-in near Sana'a University. There are thousands of tribesmen in the Ahmar homeland of Amran Province, many of whom say they are ready to take up arms against the government.
According to many who know him, Mr. Saleh’s anger at the Ahmars stems in part from a belief that the Ahmar family, especially Hamidh al-Ahmar, a fierce critic, orchestrated the protests from the beginning. In fact, the movement started as a popular one, and though its members have benefited from the Ahmars’ largess, many of them say they distrust the family, whom they regard as corrupt.
The fighting broke out on 23 May after Mr. Saleh refused for a third time to sign an agreement— brokered by Arab mediators and backed by the United States— under which he would cede power in exchange for immunity from prosecution for himself and his family.
So far, the fighting has been limited by the absence of Yemen’s most powerful general, Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who defected to the opposition in March with his troops. General Ahmar, who is not related to the Ahmars involved in the fighting, has protected the protest sit-in near Sana'a University, but has stayed neutral in the recent violence. If he were to become involved, analysts say, the bloodshed could grow far worse. The general’s home, which is next to Hamidh al-Ahmar’s, was recently struck by government mortar fire. It was not clear whether the general was were wounded.
Heavy fighting also broke out between troops and opposition tribesmen unrelated to the Ahmars in Taiz, south of Sana'a. The city had been in lockdown since last week, when troops and plainclothes gunmen killed dozens of demonstrators.
Government troops opened fire on the protesters again, witnesses said, but hundreds of tribesmen took up arms to protect the protesters and forced the troops out. Ten protesters were killed, according to a local doctor Abdelkafi Ahamsan. A Yemeni official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said that four soldiers were also killed. It was the latest of several episodes in which tribesmen have protected protesters in Taiz.
By evening, tanks were being deployed in the city for the first time, and protesters were gearing for more confrontations. “All the tanks, they are moving in the streets, like Syria,” Dr. Shamsan said. “They closed the entry to Taiz. There is no electricity and no water. The situation is very bad.”