Yemeni demonstrators call for unity against Saudi aggression

YemenExtra

M.A.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis have staged a demonstration against the Saudi-led war against Yemen, calling for unity among all the factions in the country.

People took to the streets of the capital city of Sana’a on Tuesday, calling for an end to the devastating Saudi-led war against the impoverished nation.

The demonstrators called for dialogue among all the warring sides in Yemen in an attempt to counter the existing plots against the country.

More than 12,000 people have been killed since the onset of Saudi Arabia’s deadly campaign against Yemen in March 2015. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country’s infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.

According to the UN, the country is experiencing “the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet.”

A member of Yemen’s Ansarullah movement who was addressing the gathering pointed to the recent conflicts in the country which led to the killing of the former Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and said that the movement does not seek revenge for any of its members killed during the conflict.

He said that Ansarullah movement has a series of documents which prove that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been hatching plots against Yemen and warned that the movement will reveal those documents if Riyadh and Abu Dhabi continue their hostile policies against the Yemeni nation.

Saleh was killed on Monday while attempting to escape Sana’a to Ma’arab Province. This came shortly after he broke ranks with the Houthi Ansarullah movement in favor of the Saudi-led military coalition, which has been pounding Yemen to reinstall its former Riyadh-allied government.

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Yemen’s ex-president Saleh killed: Interior Ministry

According to Yemen’s Interior Ministry, Yemeni forces, backed by fighters from the popular Ansarullah Houthi movement, are in full control of all positions previously held by Saleh’s militias in Sana’a.

Earlier on Monday, Saudi Arabia unleashed a fresh wave of aerial bombardments against targets in Yemen’s capital in an apparent effort to support forces loyal to Saleh. According to the UN, the capital city came under at least 25 airstrikes overnight.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Tuesday that as many as 234 people have been killed and another 400 injured during the clashes between Ansarullah fighters and supporters of Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) in Sana’a over the past month.

Since November 29, armed clashes sparked by forces loyal to Saleh, have continued against Houthi forces that are at the forefront of a retaliatory war against the Saudi-led military coalition. Saleh loyalists accused the Houthi fighters of raiding their bases across Sana’a and beyond, an allegation that Ansarullah Leader Abdul-Malik al-Huthi has strongly denied.

Saleh stepped down following a 2011 uprising after being in power for 33 years. His resignation in 2012 paved the way for Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to assume power as Yemen’s president. Hadi, however, resigned in 2014 and fled the country to Saudi Arabia.

The Houthi movement assumed responsibility for running state affairs after Hadi’s escape threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country, where an al-Qaeda affiliate was present.

Later on, Saleh joined forces with the Houthis and the Yemeni army to defend the country against the brutal Saudi aggression, which started in March 2015.

On Saturday, however, Saleh officially announced the end of his alliance with Houthis, claiming that the movement had imposed hunger on the country and worked as an ally of Iran.

Source: PressTV