Saudi Crown Prince Ousts More Royal Family Members

Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud fired the commander of the joint forces fighting in Yemen and his son, a high ranking official himself, over charges of corruption on Tuesday. The two royals, along with four other military officers, were turned over to the Riyadh anti-corruption committee after the king’s son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, issued the committee a polite request to investigate the group for alleged foul play in the Defense Ministry. Tuesday’s round of arrests is the latest in what is seen as an ongoing purge by the crown prince of potential rivals ever since his rise to the position of heir apparent in 2017. Over the years, approximately 500 princes and government officials have been detained in the operation, many held in the swanky Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, which was forced to close its doors to outside guests from November 2017 to February 2018. While MBS insists his actions are intended to rid Saudi Arabia of deep-rooted corruption and set it on a path of modernization and prosperity, his detractors accuse him of violently disposing of political opponents on his way to consolidating unprecedented powers.