OSLO (AFP) – Yemen President Ali Abdallah Saleh tried to get Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, now a leading dissident officer, killed last year by tricking Saudi forces into bombing his headquarters, a Norwegian daily said Monday, quoting a leaked US cable.

"In the winter of 2010," Saudi fighter jets bombing Shiite rebellion targets in Yemen were directed to bomb a building that had been described as insurgent headquarters," the Aftenposten daily reported.

But the mission was aborted at the last minute when pilots realised they were about to bomb the headquarters of General Ahmar, Aftenposten explained, saying its information came from a cable from the US embassy in Riyadh.

The Norwegian daily of reference, which announced last year it had obtained all 250,000 US diplomatic cables whistleblowing website WikiLeaks had accessed, did not publish the cable's content directly on its website as it usually does.