After Egypt withdrew from Yemen, he helped topple the Sallal government and his tribes provided crucial support to the new regime of Abdul Rahman al-Iryani against the Royalists.

[1] When Colonel Ibrahim al-Hamdi seized power in 1974, he tried to limit the representation of the tribal leaders, which led to an open rebellion by the Hashid tribes.

After the assassination of Hamdi in 1977, Saudi Arabia helped bring about a reconciliation between the tribes and the new government in 1978, first under Ahmad al-Ghashmi and then under Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Al-Ahmar died of cancer on 29 December 2007, aged 74, at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He and his family, like many north Yemenis, are "Zaydi by parentage and Sunni by denominational conversion via partisan affiliation with Islah.