Rebels kill Yemen’s strongman as fighting for capital continues
SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni rebels on Monday killed their onetime ally Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s former president, as they gained the upper hand in days of fighting with his forces for control of the capital, Sanaa. The tumult threw the country’s three-year civil war into an unpredictable new chapter just as Yemen’s Saudi-backed government had hoped the Shiite rebels would be decisively weakened.
Saleh’s recent defection from the rebel camp and now his death shattered the alliance that had helped the Iranianbacked rebels, known as Houthis, rise to power in 2014 — giving the government and the Saudi coalition supporting it with airstrikes hope for a turning point in a stalemated war that has brought humanitarian disaster.
But with Saleh’s forces seemingly in disarray, it was not immediately clear if the Saudiled coalition fighting the rebels will be able to turn the split to its advantage in the war.
It was a grisly end for Saleh, who ruled Yemen for more than three decades until an Arab Spring uprising forced him to step down in 2012. He later allied with the Houthi rebels hoping to exploit their strength to return to power. That helped propel Yemen into the ruinous civil war that has spread hunger and disease among its 28 million people.
Saleh’s death was announced by the Houthis and confirmed by two Saleh associates and a Yemeni government official. The exact circumstances were unclear: Houthi officials said their fighters killed him as he tried to flee the capital for his nearby hometown of Sanhan. The Houthis’ top leader said Saleh paid the price for his “treason,” accusing him of betraying their alliance to side with the Saudibacked coalition.
A video circulated online showed Saleh’s bloodied body with a gaping head wound as he was carried in a blanket by rebel fighters chanting “God is great!” as they dumped it into a pickup truck. The images recalled the death of another Arab leader slain in the midst of his country’s uprising: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, whose body was shown in a video being abused by rebels who killed him in 2011.
Saleh’s killing appeared to stun members of his camp and to help consolidate the position of the Houthis — at least for now.