Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh Killed In Fighting With The Iran-aligned Houthi Militia

Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been killed in fighting with the Iran-aligned Houthi militia raging in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Monday Dec 04,2017

Saleh was killed two days after he publicly broke off ties with the Houthi group, amid intense street battles between the rival factions that led to the killing of dozens of people.

In a televised statement on Saturday, he expressed his openness to talks with the Saudi-led coalition in what the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels labelled "a coup" against their fragile alliance.

Saleh was killed by the rebels in a rocket-propelled grenade and shooting attack on his car at a checkpoint outside Sanaa

In a statement read out on a Houthi TV network, the interior ministry announced the "killing" of "Saleh and his supporters"

"This is after he and his men blockaded the roads and killed civilians in a clear collaboration with the enemy countries of the coalition," the statement said

Yemen is the Arab world's poorest country and its 27 million people have the lowest life expectancy in the region.

Yemen’s protracted bloodshed has compounded the woes of one of the Arab world’s poorest countries and left at least 10,000 dead as hunger and disease have spread.

At the United Nations, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the warring parties to stop all ground and air assaults.

Note

Houthis are named as such because they follow a tribal leader in the north called Abdul Malik al-Houthi.

His family started to criticise the Yemeni government in the 1990s for its alignment with Saudi Arabia and the USA, demanding a more equitable share of development and political voice in the country.

The founder of the modern-day Houthi rebellion, Badr-eddin Houthi, was killed by Saleh's forces in 2004. Saleh was Yemen's president at the time.

The Houthis participated with other Yemenis in the Arab Spring of 2011, demanding the removal of Saleh.

 The Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) brokered an end to the popular uprising, retaining Saleh as president. He was finally removed in 2012

In 2014, the Houthis aligned with Saleh and overtook the capital, Sanaa.

They have demanded a greater role in the government and a say in a new constitution. They opposed a plan to divide the country into six federal regions
Zaidism, which the Houthis adhere to, is a sect of Islam followed by about 35 percent of Yemenis

It is a Shia sect close to Sunni Islam, but not the same as Iran's form of Shiism

Not all Zaidis support the Houthi rebellion.

The Yemen war is not a religious war, although all sides claim that God is on their side.

 Yemen Civil War and Saleh Death

In power for 33 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh in 1978 had become the president of what was then North Yemen, before leading the country following its unification in 1990.

Yet, by 2011, many felt Saleh's long-running rule was only serving his interests - and demanded change.

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis filled the streets in the first two months of 2011, protesting against poverty and unemployment. As weeks passed, the protesters' calls escalated from demanding government reforms to seeking Saleh's removal, accusing him of mismanaging the economy and corruption.

It was a time of major economic upheaval. Inflation was rising, and so was unemployment. Money from the country's dwindling oil reserves had been wasted or stolen - according to a 2015 United Nations report, Saleh had amassed a vast fortune worth up to $60bn from corruption, extortion and embezzlement.

In order to stay afloat, Yemen  relied on US aid, as well as assistance from its neighbouring countries

In early 2011, student-led demonstrations in the capital, Sanaa, quickly spread to other cities, including Aden and Taiz.

The protests prompted a brutal crackdown which resulted in the killing of at least 50 people.

The deaths caused a public outcry, triggering mass resignations of government ministers and high-ranking military officials. Saleh, who had previously rejected a proposal by opposition groups that would see him leave power peacefully, indicated in March that he planned to step down.

Yet a month later, the president changed tack, refusing to sign a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-brokered agreement, which called for his immunity and for the opposition to join a coalition with his ruling party.

While the opposition backed the agreement, after a period of hesitation, Saleh refused to sign it on three different occasions - triggering unrest

Eventually, the protests forced Saleh to hand over power to his deputy, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi for a two-year period as part of the GCC transitional deal
.
Yet the political transition was anything but smooth in a country hit by mass unemployment, food insecurity, suicide bombings and a burgeoning separatist movement in the south.

In early 2012, Hadi ran as the sole candidate in Yemen's presidential campaign, which was boycotted by the opposition groups, including the Shia Houthis and the separatist Southern Movement.

Nevertheless, with a 65 percent voter turnout, Hadi became president in a referendum-like election that was supported by the international community.

The new president, however, struggled to impose his authority.

As new alliances were formed, Houthi rebels and Saleh supporters, who were previously at odds, teamed up to fight forces loyal to Hadi's government.

In September 2014, the Iranian-backed Houthis took over Yemen's capital, Sanaa. At the start of 2015, the rebels tried to take over the entire country, eventually forcing Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia where he has been ever since.

Saudi Arabia considered the Houthis a threat and a proxy of Iran. It labelled them a "terrorist" organisation amid fears the situation in Yemen could be an opportunity for Tehran to gain a foothold on the kingdom's border.

Iran denied any involvement, but that did not stop Saudi Arabia from forming a military alliance of 10 countries to target the Houthis.

In March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition began its air campaign, code-named Operation Decisive Storm.

Initially, the Saudi-led coalition's participating nations also included Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, and Sudan. Qatar was expelled from the coalition in June 2017, after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt imposed a land, naval and air blockade on the country, accusing it of supporting "terrorism".

The United States backed the coalition but did not join in direct military action. Washington's role was focused on providing logistics and intelligence support for the coalition's air campaign

Thirty-three months on, a combination of Saudi-led air raids, a naval and land siege, and fighting on the ground have devastated Yemen, turning it into the world's largest humanitarian crisis with civilians bearing the brunt of the war.

Seven million Yemenis face famine, and 18.8 million people are in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Cooking gas prices have surged, while medicine and fuel are in short supply.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), 2.5 million people have no access to clean water and one in every 12 is severely malnourished.

The war has also displaced 3.3 million people since its beginning.