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Yemeni president sacks PM, appoints army general as VP

Xinhua, April 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Yemen's internationally recognized President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Sunday sacked the current prime minister and appointed a new vice president, an official told Xinhua.

Hadi relieved Khalid Bahah of his duties as the prime minister, and appointed him as a political advisor to the president. A presidential source attributed his dismissal to "managerial incompetence."

Meanwhile, powerful army General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar was promoted to the vice president from the deputy of armed forces in less than two months, according to local political experts.

According to the presidential decrees issued by Hadi, Dr. Ahmed Obeid Bin Dagher, a senior leader of the General People's Congress party, was appointed as a new Yemeni prime minister to replace Bahah.

On Feb. 22, Hadi appointed General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar as the vice commander-in-chief in a bid to retake the rebel-held capital Sanaa from the Shiite Houthi group control.

The 70-year-old army general defected from the Yemeni army and joined the forces against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011. He was forced into exile after rebels controlled Sanaa in 2014.

The Iran-allied rebels, backed by Saleh's loyalist forces, seized Sanaa in September 2014, and forced Saudi-backed Hadi, along with his government, into exile.

The Saudi-led coalition has carried out daily air bombing the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allied forces since March 2015, vowing to drive out the rebels and retrieve Sanaa.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes, half of them civilians. Endit