Yemen’s Defense Ministry has vowed a “crushing response” to the assassination of a senior official from the Houthi Ansarullah movement, saying Saudi Arabia and the US will regret their “criminal adventurism” in the impoverished state.
In a statement carried by the official Saba news agency on Monday, the ministry stressed that the Yemeni armed forces reserve the right to deal severe blows to “the aggressors and their evil coalition,” warning that they would not be safe from ballistic missiles.
Saleh al-Samad, the chairman of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, lost his life in Saudi airstrikes against his residence in the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah on Thursday.
The council was formed by the Houthi movement and the General People’s Congress Party to run state affairs in the absence of an effective government in 2016, a year after the Saudi regime and a coalition of its allies began their US-backed war against the country.
The statement further said the Saudi and Emirati aggressors and their allies, along with the US, have passed all the red lines with their “criminal adventurism” in Yemen, without thinking about the consequences of their actions.
The aggressors imagine that the resistance would be stopped with the assassination of Yemeni officials, but they would be taught a lesson with ballistic missiles, the statement added.
Yemen’s top governing body has appointed Mehdi Mohammad Hussein al-Mashat as its new head.
Leader of the Houthi Ansarullah movement Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi held the US and the Saudi Arabia responsible for Samad’s death, saying, “This crime won’t go unanswered.”
Samad was number two on the Saudi-led coalition’s most-wanted list and the alliance had offered $20 million for any information that would lead to his capture.
Saudi raids kill more civilians
Samad’s assassination came amid a rise in Saudi air raids against civilian targets across the country.
Early on Tuesday, Saudi warplanes bombarded a gas station in Abs District of Yemen’s northwestern Hajjah Province, killing at least 18 civilians and injuring 13 others.
The fresh assault came only a day after the regime’s fighter jets targeted a wedding party in the same province, killing around 50 people and wounding 55 others.
The bloodshed drew a strong condemnation from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war on Yemen in support of Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and against the Houthi fighters.
The military campaign has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, according to the latest figures released by the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.
Several Western countries, the US and the UK in particular, are accused of being complicit in the aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment.