Billionaire Eyes Yemen Presidency

The Daily Beast reports:

The smoke had barely cleared from the mosque where Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh lay bleeding and burned when his government set out for payback. He had been wounded in an attack during Friday prayers two weeks ago, and in retaliation his security forces started shelling Hadda, an upscale neighborhood south of the capital city of Sana'a. At first, the barrage of rocket fire seemed to be just another frightening round of escalating violence in a country that has, for decades, been at war with itself.

But the Hadda attack marked a very specific turn in what many say is transforming into a new civil war. Saleh’s forces had a specific target: Hamid al-Ahmar, a 44-year-old billionaire businessman from one of the most powerful families in Yemen. Shells hammered Ahmar’s house and the surrounding neighborhood, leaving 10 people dead and 35 more injured.

In an interview with Newsweek, Ahmar, who’s fond of wearing traditional robes with a large jambiya dagger strapped to his belt, denied any involvement in the attack on the president. But he was openly critical of the president in his comments. “If President Saleh leaves the political scene, Yemen will be safe,” he said. “Saleh was behind all the killings of innocent protesters nationwide.”