Yemen: Le Monde Profile on Ali Ahmar

French daily Le Monde published (translation here) a profile on Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar, leader of the first brigade who famously sided with Yemen’s protest movement in March.  Ahmar, who is President Ali Abdellah Saleh’s half-brother, is portrayed as a disciplined military leader who resisted turning the protest movement into a violent uprising and even abstained from intervening in government attacks against his clan. However, he also has reported Salafist sympathies and a bloody history from putting down Zaydi resistance in the North. “Thus, the Yemeni revolution, based on pacifism and political and religious independence, is protected by a man of war and religion,” the profile reads. Ahmar supports interim president Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi whom he called a “patriot and an honest man.” Further, he calls on “Yemen’s friends and brothers,: including the United States and the Gulf countries to continue to push for a quick transfer of power. “Then, my job will be done (…) I will say goodbye to the people and I will leave,” Ahmar said.