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Yemenis rally for army reforms as military splits impede battling al-Qaida

06 April 2012 22:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Tens of thousands of Yemenis took to streets across the country on Friday, calling on President Abd- Rabbu Mansour Hadi to launch reforms in the Yemeni army, as officials admitted that splits within the military impede their efforts to defeat al-Qaida.

The protesters, in the capital Sanaa and other major provinces, demanded the removal of the relatives of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh from leading posts in the military and security institutions. They also called for releasing detained protesters and prosecuting Saleh and his aides for allegedly ordering crackdown on protesters last year.

Nearly 2,000 protesters were killed during mass protests since January 2011 that almost brought the country to the brink of civil war.

After anti-government protesters clashed with forces loyal to Saleh last year, the first armored division led by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar joined the opposition.

Saleh, the fourth Arab leader who was forced to cede power by one-year popular protests after his counterparts in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were toppled, managed to end his 33-year rule with a UN- backed power transfer deal in return for a full immunity for him and his aides.

Hadi replaced Saleh in late February as a consensus president for a two-year interim period in line with the Gulf-brokered deal. The new president has pledged to launch a national dialogue to settle differences between the political factions and restructure the army in accordance to the deal, as well as to continue fighting al-Qaida.

Defense Minister Mohammad Naser Ahmed said early this week at the Yemeni parliament that splits within the armed forces led to the failure in defeating al-Qaida militants.

On Tuesday, Hadi directed a military committee tasked with uniting armed forces to launch reforms in the army and end the ongoing divisions as soon as possible, according to state-run Saba news agency.

The Interior Ministry raised the terrorist threat level in Sanaa on Thursday after receiving intelligence that al-Qaida may launch attacks on government facilities and foreign missions.

Resurgent Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has recently intensified attacks on the government interests and the troops in the south, exploiting a large-scale security vacuum resulted from the protest movement last year.

The Yemeni air force has raided the al-Qaida hideouts in the southern regions in the past several months. The latest air raid killed at least 11 al-Qaida operatives in the capital city of the southern province of Abyan early Thursday, one day after another air raid in southern province of Lahj left a total of 45 militants killed.

Earlier on Friday, two suicide bombers on explosive-laden motorcycle blew themselves up outside a military intelligence agency in the southern port city of Aden, killing themselves and causing no casualties or damage to the government facility, according to a local police official.

In a statement obtained by Xinhua, the AQAP claimed responsibility for Aden’s botched attack, saying "the explosives were mistakenly exploded while the two bombers were on their way to their intended target."

The terrorist group also said that it carried out an attack on a military checkpoint in northeast province of Marib on Friday afternoon, a few hours after the suicide attack in Aden, which killed nearly a dozen of the soldiers. The attack was confirmed by officials of the Interior Ministry.

Local observers fear that security situation in the southern and eastern provinces, home to the country’s oil and gas stockpiles, may worsen as the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch expands its control over the chaos-ridden areas, despite the government efforts to reunite the army to intensify battles against the AQAP.