Presidential Guard

The Presidential Guard, the Yemeni equivalent of the US Secret Service, has the mandate of protecting the President, ministerial level Republic of Yemen Government (RoYG) officials, and visiting foreign dignitaries. It is one of the only security or military units that possessed a dedicated, nationwide communications network.

In September 2012 Yemen's defence minister called on the son of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over troops and material he had retained against orders. Defence Minister Mohammed Nasser Ahmad, during an inspection of the first brigade of the newly formed presidential guard, observed that it was at only 10 per cent of its official strength. A Yemeni “brigade” is much smaller than the US equivalent and is estimated to include about 1,500 troops at full strength. Since brigade commanders were in charge of distributing salaries to their soldiers, brigade sizes were often exaggerated.

Formerly part of Ahmed Saleh's Republican Guard, the brigade was assigned to the new force in early August 2012 as President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi sought to assert his control over Yemen's military. The new presidential guard was slated to include three brigades from Saleh's Republican Guard and one from the First Armoured Division led by rebel general Ali Mohssen. Units loyal to Mohssen and to then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh shelled each other in 2011 in the capital Sanaa, as thousands of protesters took to the streets against the long-serving president. Saleh and family members had been accused of obstructing the internationally backed transition plan, under which Hadi took office in February 2012.

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was supported by the international community and as a Sunni continued to have the backing of the Sunni majority in Yemen. By late 2014 the Presidential Guard was the only military unit still loyal to the internationally recongnized government of President Hadi. Presidential guards were forced to leave the Presidential residence 21 January 2015 after two days of fierce fighting. The guards were seen walking away with their belongings and personal weapons. Some of them said they were betrayed by their superiors.

The US had been actively engaged since 2001 in training elements of Yemen's Counter-Terrorism [CT] forces, including the Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU), the Yemen Special Operations Force (YSOF), the Presidential Guard, the Yemeni Border Troops, Yemen Air Force (YAF), and the Yemen Coast Guard (YCG).

By 2010 Yemen Special Operations Forces (YSOF) had plans to reinvigorate its CT element and build an operations center of its own, and seemed to be jockeying for the position of Yemen's premier CT force. YSOF and CTU were both seeking to procure communications systems that were interoperable with the Presidential Guard, thus allowing them to become more closely aligned with that well-resourced unit.

As of 2008 BG Tariq Saleh, nephew of President Saleh, was head of his Presidential Guard. Tariq Saleh had a reputation as an honest and competent individual. The Yemeni Counter Terrorism Unit, Presidential Guard and Coast Guard are largely freee of corruption.

On 14 January 2004 a security incident occurred at approximately 1445 hours, when two members of the SOC/Yemen training unit were shot at in Aden while traveling in a three-vehicle convoy consisting of two rental vehicles and a Yemeni military security vehicle. The vehicles in the attacking motorcade contained uniformed members of Yemen's elite Presidential Guard, and that BG Ahmed Ali Saleh -- commander of the Yemeni Special Forces (YSOF) and a son of President Saleh --- was a passenger in the lead vehicle. Both motorcades stopped after the shooting and the Presidential Guard stated that they viewed the SOC/Yemen motorcade as a possible threat because it did not immediately pull over to the side of the road, and had Yemeni security personnel (actually YSOF personnel) in plainclothes who were carrying arms.