SANAA— Yemen's Houthi rebels said they executed nine
people on Saturday for involvement in the killing of one of their top leaders
in a 2018 air strike claimed by Saudi Arabia.
اضافة اعلان
Saleh Al-Sammad was head of the Houthis' supreme political
council and his death three years ago was seen as a major blow to the
Iran-backed rebels who control Sanaa.
The pro-rebel Saba news agency said the nine were shot by a
firing squad at a square in the
Yemen capital.
They were among 16 people convicted of involvement in his
killing by a Houthi court.
Seven other people — including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman and former US president Donald Trump — were tried in absentia by the
court and also sentenced to death.
Sammad was killed in April 2018 alongside six other people
in an air strike in the western Yemeni province of Hodeida.
"The general prosecution has carried out the death
sentence against nine people involved in the murder" of Sammad, Saba reported.
"They were shot to death in Tahrir Square ... in the
presence of senior Houthi leaders and Sanaa residents," the agency added.
Saudi Arabia said later that it carried out the air strike.
"The heroes of the Royal Air Force were able to
successfully target the leader of the Houthi militia Saleh Al-Sammad,"
Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Khaled bin Salman,
tweeted at the time.
Prince Khaled said the strike was overseen by his brother
the Saudi crown prince, after Sammad threatened a wave of missile strikes
against Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis are battling the Saudi-backed Yemeni government
— and a military coalition spearheaded by Riyadh — for control of the
impoverished country.
The conflict began in 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa,
prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year.
Since then, tens of thousands have been killed and millions
pushed to the brink of famine in what the United Nations calls the world's
worst humanitarian crisis.
Sammad was the most senior Houthi leader to have been killed
since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the country.
The Houthis — who had vowed to avenge his death — have
regularly launched ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia.
In August this year they escalated cross-border attacks by
also using drones.
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