Efforts to broker an exit for Saleh — forced to seek treatment in Riyadh for wounds suffered in an attack on his palace ten days ago — after months of protests against him and a round of open warfare in the capital were deadlocked.

Political paralysis and long-standing conflicts with insurgents, separatists and rebel tribesmen have fanned Western and regional fears of Yemen collapsing into chaos and giving Al-Qaeda a stronghold alongside oil shipping routes.

Those conflicts flared anew in two of Yemen’s southern provinces, including one whose capital has fallen to militants and ushered in a round of fighting that has driven most of its population to flight.

The official newspaper of Saleh’s party said several people suspected of involvement in an attempt to kill him had been arrested and were being questioned, in an apparent reference to the attack that wounded Saleh and members of his cabinet.

It said interrogations had revealed “important, grave” facts “related to Al-Mushtarak” — an element of the Arabic name for the Joint Meetings coalition of opposition parties seeking his immediate departure. The paper provided no further details.

The report came after the collapse of another attempt — with US and European backing — to resolve Yemen’s political crisis, when Saleh’s deputy ignored the opposition’s demand that he renounce all claim to power immediately.

A member of the opposition coalition that met with the country’s vice president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said he declined to discuss the president’s fate with them.

“Security, food and electricity issues were discussed,” said Sultan al Atwani, referring to the shortages that have all but paralyzed the capital in the aftermath of fierce battles between Saleh’s forces and a general who turned on him.

“The political side was not discussed, because the other side said it still needed time and was preoccupied with those matters, as well as the cease-fire,” he said.

The third collapse last month of a Gulf-brokered deal to nudge Saleh from power ushered in two weeks of fighting between his forces and those of Gen. Ali Al-Mohsen Al-Ahmar that engulfed the capital, claimed at least 200 people and forced thousands more to flee.

The office of tribal leader Sheikh Sadeq Al-Ahmar put the death toll at 100 and the number of wounded at 325 between May 23 and June 4.

A cease-fire has held in Sanaa since Saleh left following the June 3 attack on his palace. But shortages of fuel, electricity and water are acute, and violence in southern Abyan province — whose capital militants seized last month — has worsened.

In Zinjibar — the capital that fell to militants — a security source said Yemen’s army killed two Al-Qaeda militants and injured several others on Monday, while one soldier was killed and seven others injured.

Saleh’s opponents have accused him of handing over Zinjibar to militants to foment unrest and reinforce his threat that the end of his three-decade rule, as demanded by protesters, would amount to ceding the region to Al-Qaeda.

Yemen’s government, itself paralyzed in the broader political standoff, is struggling to provide medicine and other essentials to people who have fled Zinjibar.

At least 10,000 have taken refuge in Aden, many of them now housed in schools. The UN children’s agency UNICEF warned last week that the number of displaced may hit 40,000.

“We left everything we own behind us,” said Fudail Hassan Hasoun, who fled Zinjibar with his four children and their mother. “I fled my house with nothing.”

Fresh clashes broke out in the southern province of Taiz on Monday after the army advanced on militants who attacked them and destroyed several armored vehicles, a local official said.

Opposition parties have said they will form their own transitional assembly within a week if Saleh does not cede power. It is not clear whether those parties have any significant influence over many of the protesters.