For Hadi, Yemen's New Leader, a Battle for Control Mr. Saleh's nephew Brig. Gen. Tariq Saleh ceded his post leading one of the country's most well-armed military regiments - the Third Brigade, based in the mountains around Sana - to Brig. Gen. Abdul-Rahman al-Halili, who was Mr. Hadi's pick for the job. But as Mr. Hadi tries to assert his new authority and reorganize Yemen's fractured military, which is engaged in a war against militants with Al Qaeda in the country's south, the transfer from one military commander to another turned out to be far less smooth than it appeared. After the ceremony, Mr. Saleh and his relatives, who viewed control of the Third Brigade as their family's right, refused to cede power to the new military leader. It was not until Monday - one day before a United Nations Security Council resolution threatened sanctions against those interfering with Yemen's political transition - that General Halili was even able to enter the Third Brigade base. "All the time, Hadi is struggling," said Salem Bin Talib, a top aide to the prime minister. We avoided all-out war over the past year. He doesn't want that to break out now. Since he assumed power in late February after a year of antigovernment protests, Mr. Hadi has been slowly shedding his government of officials from the old administration who are either members of the Saleh family or staunch Saleh loyalists. This has not always gone smoothly, as the fiasco with the Third Brigade shows, and the extent of Mr. Hadi's authority to remake Yemen remains in doubt. "Even the defense minister said that he himself cannot order the Republican Guards," Mr. Bin Talib said of a military division still under the control of Mr. Saleh's son, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ali Saleh, which includes the Third Brigade. Meanwhile, this tug of war between the new and old governments comes at a costly price. Financially struggling, Yemen is facing an increasingly brazen Qaeda franchise that controls large parts of its territory in the southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa. With the government and army remaining fractured, the militants take advantage of the power vacuum. "The military is still divided; commanders are maneuvering politically while their guns are still pointed at each other, so it is very hard to address other priorities," said April Alley, a Yemen-based political analyst with the International Crisis Group. Even with the military's recent gains against Ansar al-Sharia, a Qaeda-linked group, militants control vast territory in the south. This is the case even as American drone strikes have sharply increased and about 20 American military advisers have arrived in Yemen to provide intelligence support. Last month, militants allied with Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for one of the deadliest suicide bombings in the country's history, which killed nearly 100 soldiers practicing for a military parade on a major Sana thoroughfare. At the crux of the standoff is the personal conflict that erupted into warfare last year during Yemen's political uprising between Ahmed Ali Saleh and Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar, a powerful commander. Military leaders from either camp "refuse to send their troops to the south, and the troops who are in the south are badly trained and poorly motivated," said a foreign diplomat in Sana. Meanwhile, "Hadi is scared, and at this point he is just trying to stay in his position," the diplomat said. As a result, the new Yemeni president has become closer to figures from the anti-Saleh camp, like General Ahmar. In addition, a number of Mr. Hadi's military and political appointees are from his family or home region. When Mr. Saleh agreed to leave office last November in an internationally brokered amnesty deal, Yemenis were prepared for backlash from Saleh family members who remained in the government, especially those who were military commanders. After all, Mr. Saleh had spent his long rule surrounding himself with relatives and other allies from his home village, Sanhan, in order to cement his authority. Though he was replaced, many of his loyalists remain in place. Yemeni officials said that while certain divisions of the armed forces still remain firmly under Saleh family control, the former president sees his empire slipping away. One of Mr. Saleh's nephews was replaced as deputy head of the National Security Bureau after the terrorist attack in Sana, and a half brother was recently replaced as head of the air force. "If Mr. Saleh loses the Third Brigade, then he becomes just like a normal citizen," said Ali al-Sarari, a leader in the Socialist Party. Mr. Saleh has remained in Sana, despite considering exile in Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. He continues to meet with his loyalists inside his private residence, does interviews with Arabic-language news media and is creating a museum housing his old belongings from the presidential palace. "He wants to show "I'm still here; I'm still present," but these for me are signs of weakness, not strength," the high-ranking Yemeni official said. The standoff has left Yemen's capital patrolled by soldiers loyal to dueling commanders. "Sana is not a capital, it is a divided city," said Ali Saif Hassan, an independent political analyst. Hadi cannot move outside his house. Ali Mohsin cannot move outside his base. Ali Abdullah is stuck in his house. There is no security.