DUBAI: The leader of Yemen’s rebels may have died after being severely wounded by government forces in the north of the country, a Yemeni government website and media said on Sunday.
The rebels, known as the Houthis after the family name of their leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, are fighting government troops in impoverished Yemen’s mountainous north, complaining of social, religious and economic discrimination.
The Yemeni Defense Ministry said on its website that Houthi was wounded in an attack by government forces and might have died from his wounds.
“There are increasing reports about the death of the terrorist Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, who was severely injured in an attack aimed at a gathering with a group of terrorist elements,” the website said, adding there were reports that he had been buried in Jabel Tolan in the northern Malaheeth area.
Al Arabiya television also said the rebel leader was dead, citing unnamed Yemeni sources as saying he was killed in an air strike. Yemeni news websites carried the same report.
