On Saturday, Fawaz al-Dhibri, the director of the office of General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar was wounded by a roadside bomb explosion in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a in what is believed to have a botched assassination attempt. Sources close to the matter told the Yemen Post under cover of anonymity, they believe al-Dhibri’s attackers aimed to send a message to Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar.
A security and political analyst warned that given existing political tensions, such attacks could potentially increase, with factions trying to even out the field through targeted assassinations, using shadow games to eliminate the competition.
For the first in three decades Yemen find itself at an interesting political crossroads, with no clear leadership. At this particular point in time neither political parties nor tribal factions have the upper hand; rather power has been spread throughout, fragmented in between tribal chiefs and politicians.
A retired military officer associated Yemen’s current turmoil with that of birth pain, noting that as the country is looking for its new footing, the pains of change and political rebirth will have to be overcome.
But if many are willing to overlook the spike of violence by keeping their eye set on Yemen’s institutional silver-lining, hoping that law and order will at one point overcome chaos and lawlessness, other, less optimistic parties worry, the targeting of prominent public figures will only incense factions further and thus call for retaliations.