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Saudi-led air strike kills top Houthi official in Yemen

April 24, 2018 at 10:44 am

Saleh Al-Samad, top civilian leader in the armed Houthi movement in Yemen [Wikipedia]

A Saudi-led coalition airstrike last week killed the top civilian leader in the armed Houthi movement in Yemen, the group reported on Monday.

US giving weapons to Saudi to bomb Yemen - Cartoon [Latuff/MiddleEastMonitor]

US giving weapons to Saudi to bomb Yemen – Cartoon [Latuff/MiddleEastMonitor]

He was the most senior official to be killed by the Western-backed alliance in the three-year-old war, reports Reuters.

Saleh al-Samad held the post of president in the Houthi-backed political body which runs most of northern Yemen.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised statement that Samad was killed on Thursday in the port city of Hudaydah, on Yemen’s west coast, in several strikes which killed six others in his retinue.

Al-Houthi said:

The forces of aggression, led by America and Saudi Arabia, bear the legal responsibility for this crime and all its consequences

There was no immediate coalition comment on the reports but Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya TV said the alliance had killed Samad after a “precise monitoring” of his movements.