Men charged belong to the elite
Republican Guard units led by the former president’s son
AP
August 17, 2012
Sana'a: Sixty-two officers and
soldiers loyal to ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s son were charged with
resisting authorities and mutiny after trying to storm the Ministry of Defence,
a senior Yemeni security official said on Thursday.
High Security Committee spokesman
Gen Ali AlUbaidi said that the 62 will be referred to a military tribunal for
joining a force of 200 in the sudden attack on the Ministry two days earlier,
where they fired automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at Ministry
guards. The ensuing firefight left one attacker, two ministry guards and two
civilians dead.
The committee, headed by Yemen’s
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, was founded as part of a power transfer deal
after last year’s popular uprising that ended the longtime authoritarian rule
of Ali Abdullah Saleh. The committee is in charge of the country’s top security
and military issues.
The soldiers charged belong to the
elite Republican Guard units led by Ahmad Saleh, the former president’s son,
who were protesting a presidential decree that put some of the force’s units
under presidential oversight. The decree was part of Hadi’s moves to
restructure the army and purge it of former regime loyalists. He was also
trying to create his own force to help in law enforcement and implement moves
to remove former regime members.
Since he stepped down in February
and handed power to Hadi, Saleh has been accused of meddling in the country’s
affairs and retaining power behind the scene by moving his loyalists around to
disrupt life in Yemen.
It was the second time the
ministry has come under threat in a week and the second attack on state
institutions in one month. Earlier, policemen in uniform, also loyalists to
Saleh, stormed the Interior Ministry, looting its offices and setting off
clashes that left 15 dead. A number of policemen were arrested and are also
facing trial, according to Al Ubaidi. The policemen belong to the Central
Security Forces, of which Saleh’s nephew, Yahia Mohammad Abdullah Saleh, is the
second in command.
The Republican Guard command
centre issued a statement denying responsibility for the attack and said that
the mutiny was carried out by forces that no longer fall under their command.
The attack on the Defense Ministry
left Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, on a state of security alert.
Officials who spoke to the
Associated Press voiced fears of possible attacks on state institutions during
the four-day Eid al-Fitr holiday starting Friday, which comes at the end of
Muslims’ holy month of Ramadan.
They said that authorities have
beefed up security around the Presidential palace, the Foreign Ministry and
several other state institutions. Meanwhile, part of Sanaa’s Al Zubair main
street, where the Defence Ministry is located, has been blocked off to traffic
while tanks and armored vehicles are stationed nearby.
The officials, accused Saleh and
his family of trying to “humiliate” the new regime in Yemen by showing that the
new president is unable to protect it.
Several other incidents of what
officials describe as “defiance to the central government” can be easily
spotted around the capital.
The Defence Ministry, for example,
said in a statement on Thursday that armed men looted four trucks carrying food
supplies to its forces. Officials suspect that Saleh’s men paid them to attack
the trucks on their way to the capital. Meanwhile, security authorities
complained in another statement that armed men blocked a highway in the early
hours of Thursday to create a traffic jam.
Hadi has won the support of the
United States and western allies along with neighbouring Gulf countries. Since
taking office, he has launched drastic shake-ups to unify the military while
leading offensives in the south against Al Qaida militants which took control
of several cities, towns and large swaths of lands during last year’s uprising
and accompanying security vacuum there.
In June, with US. help, the Yemeni
military managed to drive Al Qaida militants from many of their strongholds,
especially the main cities and towns. However, there is fear they may make a
comeback given a persistent absence of state control in these areas.
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