Ali Abdullah Saleh ‘dead’: Yemen's former leader 'killed trying to flee country'

Officials say the former president of Yemen has been killed
Eleanor Rose4 December 2017

Houthi rebels in Yemen have footage purporting to show the body of the country's former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Officials from various sides, including the Houthis' opponents say the video shows the former powerful president.

Abdel-Rahman al-Ahnomi, a top Houthi media official, said Mr Saleh was killed near Marib, the eastern province bordering Saudi Arabia.

"He was trying to flee to Saudi," he said.

The video, apparently shot by one of the attackers, showed a Houthi crowd picking up Mr Saleh's dead body, wrapped in a colourful blanket, off the ground and lifting it onto a pickup vehicle.

Mr Saleh's eyes appear wide open, the back of his head badly injured, and his shirt bloodstained under a dark suit.

A senior Yemeni government official affiliated with Houthis' rivals and some of Mr Saleh's associates, such as Nabil al-Soufi and Ali al-Bukhiti, confirmed his death on social media and TV interviews.

The Houthi-run Masirah TV announced the death of the "leader of the traitors" on Monday, referring to Mr Saleh, who until last week was in a fragile alliance with the rebels.

Mr Saleh ruled Yemen for more than three decades until he was forced to resign following an Arab Spring uprising in 2011.

He remained in the country, however, and continued to wield power from behind the scenes.

In 2014, his forces allied with the Houthis despite the fact that as president he had gone to war with them on more than one occasion.

The rebel alliance splintered last week, setting off heavy clashes between the Houthis and Mr Saleh's forces.

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