HOUTHI LEADERS KILLED IN YEMEN AIR STRIKE
Two rebel chiefs dead after the killing of No 2 Al Sammad last week
An air strike on Yemen’s capital by a Saudi-led military coalition has killed dozens of Houthi rebels including at least two commanders.
The high-ranking insurgents were among more than 50 Houthi militiamen killed in Sanaa on Friday evening, Saudi Arabia’s official Al Ekhbariya TV station said.
The Houthis confirmed an air strike on Sanaa but did not elaborate.
The jets targeted high-ranking Houthi leaders at a headquarters affiliated with the Ministry of Interior in the Yemeni capital, said Fares Said, who lives in Sanaa.
Senior leaders in the Houthi movement were having a meeting to discuss the funeral of Saleh Al Sammad, president of the rebels’ Supreme Political Council, who was killed last week in an air strike by the Arab coalition in the Yemeni port city of Al Hodeidah, Mr Said said.
“Most of the Houthi leaders who were killed were supervisors in the popular committees that were formed by the Houthis as they took over Sanaa in September 2014,” he said.
“We still have no idea about the number of the leaders killed in the air strike but we are absolutely sure that high-ranking Houthi leaders of the second line in the Houthi movement were killed last night.”
Al Masirah, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, acknowledged that Houthi leaders met on Friday to discuss yesterday’s funeral. But the only air strike on Friday night in Sanaa on which the outlet reported involved wounded civilians.
Saudi Arabia yesterday intercepted four ballistic missiles fired by Yemeni rebels with a local official reporting one man had been killed in the attack.
The missiles were fired towards the city of Jizan in southern Saudi Arabia, the coalition said.
The Iran-backed rebels have been locked in a war with the Saudi-led military alliance, which since 2015 has fought to restore the internationally recognised Yemeni government of President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi to power.
The raid took place hours before a public funeral for Al Sammad, effectively the president of the Houthi rebels, who had vowed to make 2018 the “year of ballistic missiles” targeting Saudi Arabia before he was killed on Thursday.
He was not a military commander but Al Sammad was integral to the logistics of rebel operations. He was also crucial to the military propaganda.
Yesterday the Iran-backed rebels forced thousands of people in Sanaa and the surrounding provinces still under their control to take part in Al Sammad’s funeral, Sanaa citizen Mohammed Ezz, 37, told The National.
“The government of the Houthi militia sent an order to the schools, the institutions and the sheikhs in Sanaa city and the other provinces around Sanaa, directing them to push students and residents to attend the funeral of the Houthi leader in Al Sabeen Square on Saturday morning in an attempt to show its power,” Mr Ezz said.
“However, they know that their power is fake.”
The Houthis’ troubles are not confined to the deaths of its top officials but also internal struggles.
“The funeral of the Houthi higher commander comes as
the Houthi militia experiences unprecedented tension, especially in Sanaa where Houthi movement leaders started to point fingers accusing each other of Al Sammad’s murder,” Mr Ezz said.
“His son accused high officers in the movement of leaking information about the location of his father that enabled the Arab coalition to target him.”
Analysts said that selecting Mahdi Al Mashat, from the family of Houthi leader Abdulmalik Al Houthi, as a successor for Al Sammad was a clear indication of an underlying conflict within the different arms of the movement.
“Choosing Mr Al Mashat, the manager of the office of Mr Al Houthi, to succeed Al Sammad in the presidency of the supreme council reflects the crisis of trust among the Houthi movement leaders,” Adel Al Nouzaily, based in Sanaa, tweeted.
“Previously, they tried to transfer their conflict to the General People’s Congress party but the conflict developed to kill the council president, and tomorrow it is going to approach the leader of the militia, Abdulmalik Al Houthi.
The Arab coalition last year put Al Sammad second on a most-wanted list of 40 Houthi rebels. It offered $20 million (Dh73.4m) in return for information on him – a bounty matching that for Al Houthi.
Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition, including the UAE, that has been fighting the Houthis in neighbouring Yemen since March 2015 at the request of Mr Hadi, who had been driven into exile.
Al Sammad made a name for himself in January 2015, when he led a group of armed Houthi militias in storming the presidential palace in Sanaa.
He then placed the Mr Hadi and the Prime Minister, Khaled Bahah, under house arrest.
The rebel chief then demanded that he be appointed Vice President of Yemen, with the intention of eventually usurping Mr Hadi.