Ex-President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh Killed

SANAA-The ex-Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed while trying to leave the capital Sanna, according to a Yemeni Interior Ministry statement.

Yemen has been exposed to a Saudi-led aggression for more than two years and a half during which hundreds of massacres were committed against the people of Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition. This aggression has been escalated since a week in order to feed sedition among the Yemenis.

 The statement noted that conflicts, which had plagued Sana’a during past days, were actually over after the death of Saleh and after the city witnessed killing incidents, disorder and attempts of creating chaos by some figures in the Saleh-led General People’s Congress who colluded with the countries participating in the aggression on Yemen.  

According to Press TV, officials in Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) confirmed to Reuters that Saleh had been killed outside Sana’a, in what sources in the Houthi group said was an RPG and gun attack.

The GPC officials said Saleh was killed south of the capital Sana’a along with the assistant secretary-general of the GPC, Yasser al-Awadi.

Earlier on Monday, Saudi Arabia unleashed a fresh wave of aerial bombardments against targets in Yemen’s capital in an apparent effort to support forces loyal Saleh.

Since November 29, armed clashes sparked by forces loyal to Saleh, have continued against Houthi forces that are at the forefront of a retaliatory war against the Saudi-led military coalition. Saleh loyalists accused the Houthi fighters of raiding their bases across Sana’a and beyond, an allegation that the Houthi leader has strongly denied.

Saleh stepped down following  2011 events in Yemen. His resignation in 2012 paved the way for Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to assume power as Yemen’s president. Hadi, however, resigned in 2014 and fled the country to Saudi Arabia.

The Houthi movement assumed responsibility for running state affairs after Hadi’s escape threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country, where an al-Qaeda affiliate was present.

Later on, Saleh joined forces with the Houthis and the Yemeni army to defend the country against the brutal Saudi aggression, which started in March 2015.

On Saturday, however, Saleh officially announced the end of his alliance with Houthis, claiming that the movement had imposed hunger on the country and worked as an ally of Iran.

Hamda Mustafa