Yemen's Vice President Abd al-Rab Mansur al-Hadi has named opposition leader Mohammed Basindwa as the new prime minister.

The country's official Saba news agency said Sunday Basindwa is to form a new national unity government under the Gulf-sponsored agreement signed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, last week to transfer power to his deputy as part of a transition to democracy.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Saleh announced a general amnesty for all those who “committed errors” during the 10-month political crisis, “except those involved in crimes or the June 3 bomb attack on his compound in Sana'a in an apparent assassination attempt.” The president suffered serious injuries that forced him to seek medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

Vice President Hadi also declared February 21, 2012 as the date for a presidential election to formally end Mr. Saleh's 33 years in power. The Gulf plan agreed to by Mr. Saleh and Yemen's main political parties allows him to remain president in an honorary capacity until that election.

In violence Sunday, Yemeni security and tribal sources said Shi'ite rebels attacked a Sunni Islamist school and other sites in the northern province of Saada, killing at least 24 people and wounding about 50 others.

A provincial security official and local Sunnis told foreign news agencies that the Shi'ite Zaidi rebels known as Houthis shelled Sunni targets in the town of Damaj. They say the targets included the school run by the Sunni Islamist Salafi sect.

The Shi'ite Zaidi sect dominates the Saada region and sees the Salafis as a threat. Militants from both sides have fought each other in recent weeks, prompting local tribesmen to try to secure a truce.

Houthi rebels led an uprising against the Yemeni government in the country's north for years before both sides agreed to a truce last year.