Killing claim
Houthi fighters backed by Iran in Yemen say they have killed Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president, after he deserted his Shia allies.
YEMEN: Houthi fighters backed by Iran in Yemen say they have killed Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president, after he deserted his Shia allies.
Saleh, 75, who ruled Yemen for more than three decades, was overthrown in 2012 but joined forces with the Houthis three years later. On Sunday he abruptly switched sides, defecting to the Saudi-led Gulf coalition that has been bombing Houthi forces in northern Yemen.
Saleh’s death could mark a turning point in the proxy war between the Sunni Muslims of Saudi Arabia and the Shia Muslims of Iran that has left thousands of people dead and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. In a live televised address yesterday, President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the country’s officially recognised leader, called on all Yemenis to rise up against the Houthis.
Houthi fighters and officials from Saleh’s party, the General People’s Congress, confirmed that Saleh had been killed. They said he died along with Yasser al-awadi, the party’s assistant secretarygeneral, after their convoy came under fire yesterday.
A graphic video shared online appeared to show Saleh’s body, drenched in blood, with a gaping head wound. As it is carried to a pickup truck on a blanket, voices in the background shout: ‘‘Thanks be to God.’’
In a televised speech, Abdulmalek al-houthi, the group’s leader, described Saleh’s killing as a ‘‘historic defeat’’ for the Saudiled coalition.
Hussain al-bukhaiti, a journalist with ties to the Houthis, said Saleh died east of the capital, Sanaa, as he tried to flee the fighting. ‘‘He was killed in his vehicle as it approached a checkpoint, where the Houthis shot at it to stop him.’’
Until last week Saleh and his supporters had been fighting alongside the Houthis against Hadi and his Gulf Arab allies. However, after clashes between the erstwhile allies, Saleh announced that he was ready to turn a ‘‘new page’’ and ‘‘co-operate’’ with the Saudiled coalition if it stopped its attacks on Yemeni citizens.