Sana’a: Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a leader of a liberal Yemeni political party that is close to the powerful Al Houthi rebel group on Sunday, the official state news agency Saba said.
The killing took place one day after Yemen’s main political factions, including Al Houthis, signed an agreement mandating the president and prime minister to form a new government in an effort to defuse political tensions in the impoverished state.
Gunmen on a motorbike shot Mohammad Abdul Malik Al Mutawakal of the Union of Popular Forces party as he was walking in a street close to his home in central Sana’a, Saba said. He died in hospital, medical sources said.
The Zaidi Al Houthis are close to the Union of Popular Forces, which is a liberal party but dominated by Zaidis, a sect of Shiites that predominates in Northern Yemen. In recent months, Al Houthis have become Yemen’s main power-brokers and sent their militiamen into the west and centre of the country, far beyond their traditional redoubts. They captured the capital Sana’a on September 21, following weeks of anti-government unrest.
The Al Houthi movement, which calls itself Ansar Allah, condemned the assassination and blamed the government for not providing better security.
The Al Houthi takeover of Sana’a and their spread into central and west Yemen antagonised Sunni tribesmen and Al Qaida militants, who regard Al Houthis as heretics.
On Saturday 20 Yemeni soldiers and three suspected Al Qaida militants died in clashes in the town of Jabal Ras in Yemen’s western province of Hodeida.
