NEW YORK - The embattled president of Yemen arrived on Saturday in the United States for medical treatment for burns he suffered during an assassination attempt in June.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived at an unspecified location in the United States, according to the country's foreign press office. His journey had taken him from Oman, through London.

The one-line Yemeni statement said Saleh was in the US for a "short-term private medical visit". His staff has said he is in the United States to be treated for injuries suffered during the assassination attempt. He was burned over much of his body and had shards of wood embedded into his chest by the explosion that ripped through his palace mosque as he prayed.

After months of unrest, Saleh agreed in November to end his 33-year-rule of the Arabian state.

His trip to the US comes as Yemen, a key counterterrorism partner, prepares for an election on Feb 21 to select his successor.

Human Rights Watch, which says it has documented the deaths of hundreds of anti-government protesters in confrontations with Saleh's security forces, was outraged by the Yemeni president's travel to the US for medical treatment.

"It's appalling that President Saleh arrives here for first-rate medical treatment while hundreds of Yemeni victims, assaulted by his security forces have neither proper medical care nor justice for the crimes they've suffered," Balkees Jarrah, international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said in an e-mailed statement. "The Obama administration should insist those responsible for atrocities in Yemen be brought to the dock."

Maneuvering and manipulation had been reliable tactics for Saleh throughout his rule over mountainous, semi-desert Yemen, mired in poverty and divided among powerful tribes and political factions. But his room to maneuver steadily narrowed when the Arab Spring revolts swept into Yemen last year. From late January 2011, hundreds of thousands of Yemeni marched in the streets nearly every day, despite crackdowns. After a particularly bloody shooting of protesters in Sanaa, many ruling party members, lawmakers, cabinet ministers and, most importantly, powerful military generals and tribal leaders abandoned him, siding with the opposition.

It is unclear how long Saleh intends to remain in the US. In a speech before he left Yemen for Oman a week ago, he promised to return home before the election, but the US and its allies have pressured Saleh to leave Yemen for good.

Associated Press