AFP

SANAA YEMEN’S new president vowed on Saturday he will push efforts to unite the army that was split during the uprising against his predecessor, and wage a relentless war against Al Qaeda militants.

“I shall not tolerate a continued division in the army, and shall not allow any attempt to take the army away from its main duties,” said President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, addressing the military academy in Sanaa.

In his first public speech since taking office after February elections, Hadi added: “There is only one command for the army and one command for security forces.” Dissident troops had sided with protests against the regime of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and battled security forces and troops loyal to the veteran leader who stepped down following a Gulf-brokered peace plan.

Some of Saleh’s loyalists and relatives continue to lead important security forces, notably his son Ahmed, who heads the elite Republican Guard.