Yemeni security officials told reporters that the country's prime minister was also injured as shells struck a mosque in the presidential palace compound on Friday.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh "was lightly wounded in the attack" on the palace mosque in Sanaa, a security official told the AFP news agency. The extent of prime minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar's injuries were not immediately clear.
However, in an assurance to the Yemeni public, state television later said that the president was "well", and the country's deputy information minister told the Reuters news agency that Saleh would address the people shortly.
Authorities blamed the shelling on dissident tribesmen loyal to Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar who have been locked in fierce clashes with government forces in Sanaa since Tuesday.
"The prime minister, head of the parliament and several other officials who attended the Friday prayers in the mosque at the presidential palace were wounded in the attack," Tareq al-Shami, spokesman for the ruling General People's Congress, told AFP.
"The Ahmar (tribe) have crossed all red lines," he added.
Abdul Ghani Al-Iryani, an independent political analyst in Sanaa, told Al Jazeera that it was "quite reasonable to assume" that al-Ahmar's fighters were behind the attack on the presidential palace.
"[The tribesmen] probably wanted him to know that [Saleh] can no longer attack them with impunity, and that they can reach him as he can reach them," Al-Iryani said, of the attack's possible message
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