The son of Yemen’s ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh has called for revenge against the armed Houthi movement that killed the veteran leader after he switched sides in the civil war, a Saudi-owned TV station reported on Tuesday. The intervention by the exiled Ahmed Ali Saleh, if confirmed, could shift the balance of power yet again after a dramatic week that saw the elder Saleh abandon his Houthi allies, who responded by killing him.
Yemen’s war, pitting the Iran-allied Houthis who control Sana’a against a Saudi-led military alliance backing a government based in the south, has led to what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Yemen’s capital Sana’a was quiet on Tuesday after five days of fighting and 25 air strikes overnight, and UN and Red Cross aid flights had landed at the airport, UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said. The funeral of Saleh was expected later on Tuesday. The Red Cross said more than 230 people in the week’s fighting in Sana’a.
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The Arab League, which mainly support the Saudi-backed government, condemned the killing, saying Saleh’s death could cause an “explosion” in the country. The Saudi Cabinet, in a statement that did not mention Saleh by name, said it hoped the uprising against the Houthis in Sana’a would “help rid sisterly Yemen of repression, death threats, ... explosions and seizure of private and public property”.