With Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh hospitalized in Saudi Arabia and his future as leader in doubt, other actors are jockeying for power.
Following are some of the likely players in a post-Saleh era:

AL-AHMAR FAMILY
The Ahmar family is the head of Yemen’s most powerful tribal confederation Hashed. Led by patriarch Abdullah al-Ahmar, Hashed helped Saleh come to power in the 1970s and stood by him for nearly 30 years. Tensions between the Ahmar and Saleh families have flared since Abdullah’s death in 2007. The Ahmar family also founded the Islamist Islah Party, which was part of the ruling coalition until it broke off and joined the opposition.

SADEQ AL-AHMAR
The eldest of Abdullah’s 10 sons, Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar took over as head of the Hashed confederation after his father’s death. His forces, which include the first tank brigade, have been at the forefront of attacks on government loyalists in Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

HAMID AL-AHMAR
A wealthy business tycoon who owns Sabafon mobile network and opposition satellite channel Suhail TV, Hamid is also a leading member of Islah. During the early wave of anti-government protests, Hamid’s Sabafon mobile network sent out messages with details of the time and place of demonstrations. He is also the chairman of Saba Islamic Bank and owns the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in Yemen.
Brothers Hussein and Himyar al-Ahmar were also ruling party members until they quit when protests erupted.

MILITARY GENERAL ALI MOHSEN AL-AHMAR
A military commander and close kinsman to Saleh, General Ali Mohsen defected in March and threw his weight behind the protesters, taking a chunk of the armed forces into the opposition camp with him. Despite having the same surname, Ali Mohsen is not a member of the Ahmar family.

The general’s relationship with Saleh had begun to sour in recent years due to rivalry between him and the president’s eldest son, Ahmad Ali. Both Ahmad Ali and Ali Mohsen were sent to fight rebels in the north of the country, where Yemeni media said the two men’s forces were engaged in a proxy war.

Leaked diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia show that the Yemeni government gave the Saudis the coordinates of Ahmar’s home, saying it was a rebel base and inviting them to bomb it.
Another U.S. Embassy cable dated 2005 described Ahmar as the “most powerful military man in the land.”

OPPOSITION COALITION
An eclectic grouping of Islamists, socialists and tribal elements go under the umbrella of the Joint Meeting Parties – the official Yemeni opposition. The JMP spent weeks trying to broker Saleh’s exit and in May signed a deal drawn up by the Gulf Cooperation Council which sought to end the veteran leader’s rule.
That signature put them at odds with the protesters on Yemen’s streets, who were angry at the deal’s promise of immunity and its 30-day window for Saleh to step down.

YASSIN NOMAN
Secretary-general of the Yemeni Socialist Party and rotating chairman of the JMP, Noman was born in the southern governorate of Lahj and studied economics at Cairo University. He served as prime minister from 1986 until unification in 1990.

MOHAMMAD AL-YADOUMI
Yadoumi took control of Yemen’s leading opposition party – the Islamist Islah – after Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar’s death. Islah is the main power behind the coalition of traditional opposition parties leading the negotiations for the protesters with the Gulf council.

MOHAMMAD BASINDWA
Born in Aden, Basindwa is the chairman of the Preparatory Committee for National Dialogue, which is led by Hamid al-Ahmar. He was tipped to be interim prime minister by the opposition in the run up to the Gulf-brokered plan.

AHMAD ALI SALEH
Saleh’s eldest son AhmAd Ali was widely thought to be next in line for the presidency until protests broke out. In an early bid to placate protesters, Saleh guaranteed he would not hand power down to his son, who is in charge of the Republican Guard.