Sacked Yemen general finally quits post

Yemen's sacked air force commander, who has refused to quit for weeks, on Tuesday left the post he has held for nearly three decades, the United Nations envoy to Yemen said. "General Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar has handed his duties over to his successor," Jamal Benomar told AFP. "I personally attended the handover ceremony." On April 6, President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi issued a decree in which he sacked Ahmar, a half-brother of deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh, as well as the ex-leader's nephew General Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, who heads the presidential guard. Both generals had refused to quit, and Ahmar's loyalists even surrounded Sanaa's airport and threatened to shoot down planes, forcing its closure for one day. The airport was reopened after international and regional powers voiced support for Hadi, who must restructure the army based on a Gulf-brokered deal that Yemen's political parties have agreed upon. When asked if General Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh had also agreed to quit, Benomar only responded by saying that "all of Hadi's decisions are being implemented." General Ahmar had refused to comply with Hadi's order to go unless the defence minister and other senior officials also stepped down. He also demanded that several members of the powerful Hashed tribe, which backed defectors during last year's anti-Saleh protests, be forced into exile. The US ambassador in Sanaa, Gerald M. Feierstein, warned on Sunday that the international community could take steps against members of the former regime if Hadi's orders were not implemented. Hadi took power in February after Saleh, who ruled the country for more than three decades, signed the power transfer deal under which he quit in return for immunity from prosecution. But Hadi, supported by the United States and Yemen's Gulf neighbours, has been facing mounting challenges with Al-Qaeda attacks spiralling against security forces and his predecessor's lingering influence in the country. A source close to the presidency in Sanaa told AFP that "Hadi will take in the coming hours a series of other measures for restructuring the armed and security forces."