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President Hadi in Yemen
consolidates power as the fight against Al-Qaeda continues Nasser
Arrabyee
August 9, 2012
Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour
Hadi has taken the long awaited step to strengthen his hold on a split army as
an upper commander.
He has reduced the influence of
two military commanders who divided the army into two hostile to each other
groups since March last year.
The two commanders themselves
remain in their positions but their powers will become less until they become
like any two commanders in the army that is being restructured and reunified.
President Hadi took two decisions
on Monday, 6 August, to take military powers from these two commanders. Hadi
took three brigades (about 5,000 soldiers each) from the Republican Guards, and
one brigade from the First Armored Division to form what is called "the
Presidential Protection". These units will be completely independent of
the two commanders.
The second decision was to take
four brigades from the Republican Guards and four from the First Armoured
Division and put them under other commanders in two different regions, which
means these two commanders will lose more than 60 per cent of their forces.
The two decisions reduce the
military powers of defected General Ali Mohsen, commander of the First Armored
Division, and the elder son of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Ahmed,
commander of the Republican Guards. The two formed the most powerful military
centres of influence during the political crisis over Saleh's presidency.
It would be extremely difficult
for President Hadi to sack Ahmed and Mohsen who constituted an equilibrium of
forces during the crisis. After Hadi was elected president in February this
year, he needed this equilibrium to protect himself as a new president from any
possible military coup.
President Hadi's bold decisions
came amid the continued implementation of a Saudi-sponsored and US-backed deal
that resolved the Yemeni political crisis on a basis of consensus rule between
Saleh's party and opposition parties.
Meanwhile, the deputy chairman of
Saleh's party, Abdel-Karim Al-Eriani, was elected Monday as chairman of the
25-member preparatory committee for the national dialogue that will be held in
November. The woman lawyer Rakia Humaidan, from the Socialist Party was elected
as first vice president, and secretary general of the Nasserite Party Sultan
Al-Atwani was elected a second vice president. The human rights activist Amal
Basha was elected spokesperson.
Ahmed Awadh was elected a
reporter. The 25 members of the preparatory committee represent all different
groups that will be involved in the dialogue, which is due to reach agreement
on a new constitution according to which presidential and parliamentary
elections will be held in 2014.
Meanwhile, US drones killed six
Al-Qaeda operatives and a suicide bomber killed or injured 95.
The war between the US-backed
government and Al-Qaeda continues. The US drone killed an Al-Qaeda leader and
his friend while riding their motorcycle early Tuesday, 7 August, in Kaifa
area, Radaa, in Al-Baidha province, southeast of the country.
Security forces identified the
killed leader as Osama Al-Marebi. His friend was not identified. This was the
first drone attack on a motorcycle since Al-Qaeda urged its members to use
motorcycles to avoid the air strikes two months ago.
On Monday, a US drone killed four
Al-Qaeda operatives while driving in their car in the area of Qutan west of
Sayoun town in Hudhrmout, east of Yemen. The four operatives were driving a model
87 Land Cruiser, which was completely destroyed.
Eleven terrorists -- mostly
foreigners -- were arrested on Monday in Jaar of the southern province of Abyan
after a suicide bomber killed and injured around 90 people.
A young man in his 20s infiltrated
Sunday night a large tribal gathering for expressing condolences and blew
himself up, killing at least 50 and injuring 40 more.
The suicide bombing was in the
house of Abdel-Latif Al-Sayed, chairman of the anti-Al-Qaeda popular
committees. Al-Sayed defected from Al-Qaeda before it was driven out of Jaar
last May. Al-Sayed survived, but three of his brothers were killed.
Al-Qaeda has been trying to
re-take the town of Jaar for the last two weeks.
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