Top Houthi official killed in Saudi-led air strike

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The political leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels was killed in a Saudi-led coalition air strike last week, the group announced on Monday, the highest-ranking figure to die in three years of fighting that have left nearly 10,000 dead.

Saleh al-Samad was "martyred" last Thursday in the western province of Hodeidah, the Iran-allied rebels said via their Saba news agency.

"The forces of aggression, led by America and Saudi Arabia, bear the legal responsibility for this crime and all its consequences," the Houthis' overall leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi added in a televised statement.

Supporters of Yemen's Houthi rebels attend a rally marking the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen, in the capital Sanaa on March 26, 2018. /VCG Photo

There was no immediate comment by the coalition, but Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya TV said the alliance had killed Samad after a "precise monitoring" of his movements.

Six other people were killed in the same raid.

Most wanted

The head of the group’s supreme political council, Samad was second on the Saudi-led coalition's most wanted list of Houthi leaders, after al-Houthi.

His death is a major blow to the Shiite rebels who have been fighting forces of Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. These, in turn, are backed by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia with support from the United States and Britain.

Since March 2015, Yemen's conflict has killed nearly 10,000 people and wounded 54,000 others, triggering what the UN has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

A Yemeni boy, injured in an air raid on a wedding party in Yemen, receives treatment at a hospital in Yemen's Hajjah province on April 23, 2018. /VCG Photo

The Houthis have now named Mahdi al-Mashat as Samad's successor.

The militias also vowed on Monday to avenge his death. "This crime won't go unanswered," al-Houthi said.

Wedding strike

News of Samad’s killing came hours after officials said dozens of people were killed and wounded in an air raid on a wedding party on Sunday in a Houthi-controlled area in Hajjah province, north of the capital Sanaa.

Medical sources and local officials put the number of dead between 22 and 33, with at least 40 to 50 wounded.

Doctors Without Borders tweeted that a hospital it supports in Hajjah received at least 65 patients, including at least 13 children, wounded in the air strikes, which it said were "among the most devastating in the area in recent months."

A general view shows a wedding hall destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in Yemen's capital Sanaa, July 12, 2015. /VCG Photo

The Houthis blamed the attack on the coalition.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the air raid and called for a prompt and transparent investigation.

"The Secretary-General reminds all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law concerning the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure during armed conflicts," a UN statement said.

The United Nations has been advancing efforts to bring the warring sides closer together and achieve a peace deal to spare the impoverished country further bloodshed.

The coalition has carried out thousands of air strikes in Yemen that have hit schools, markets and hospitals, killing hundreds of people, although it says it does not target civilians. In late 2015, air strikes on two wedding parties in northern Yemen killed at least 159 civilians.

Following reports of Sunday’s air raid, the coalition said it would investigate the allegations.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters