Huthi rebels claim Yemen ex-president Saleh killed

Dec 04, 2017

Saleh who ruled Yemeni for 33 years before his 2012 ouster had announced the end of his alliance with the Iran-backed Huthis, sparking warnings of retribution from the rebels

This file photo taken in 2006 shows former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh addressing an electoral rally in Sanaa.Yemen's rebel-controlled interior ministry announced on December 4 announced his "killing". AFP photo

Yemen's rebel-controlled interior ministry on Monday announced the "killing" of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, as a video emerged showing what appeared to be Saleh's corpse.

"The interior ministry announces the end of the crisis of militias and the killing of their leader and a number of his criminal supporters," an anchor said on the rebels' official Al-Masirah television, referring to armed supporters of Saleh.

A video provided to AFP by the rebels showed what appeared to be a dead Saleh, wrapped in a floral-print blanket with a severe head injury. 

The video showed armed men loading the body into the back of a pick-up truck in an empty, sandy lot.

One of the men shouted "death to Israel" -- a slogan popular among the Huthis.

The General People's Congress, Saleh's political party, did not immediately confirm or deny the news. 

The Yemeni strongman, who ruled for 33 years before his 2012 ouster, on Saturday had announced the end of his alliance with the Iran-backed Huthis, sparking warnings of retribution from the rebels.

Saleh had joined ranks with the Huthis in 2014 -- for decades his bitter enemies -- to drive Yemen's Saudi-backed government out of the capital and set up a parallel administration in which the rebels now control the interior ministry.

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