Houthi rebels kill Sanaa’s governor

Abdulghani Jamil refused to surrender, prompting a firefight in which he was mortally wounded.

Houthi militants guard the house of Ali Haidar, a Houthi leader, destroyed in an air strike by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Sanaa on May 29. Reuters

SANAA // Yemen’s Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels have killed the capital’s governor in clashes that erupted during an attempt to detain him, his relatives said on Friday.

Abdulghani Jamil and his nephew Nasr Jamil “died of wounds sustained during late Thursday clashes between the governor’s aides and Houthi militiamen”, the sources said.

Jamil was appointed by fugitive president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, who fled to Saudi Arabia after the rebels seized power in Sanaa and later advanced on his last refuge in the south, the port city of Aden.

The Houthis “demanded Jamil hand himself over” to them. His refusal prompted a firefight in which both he and his nephew were wounded, the relatives said.

The Houthis, allied with renegade troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have been in control of Sanaa since last September despite more than two months of Saudi-led coalition air strikes against their positions across the country.

Meanwhile, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that a plane from the country’s Red Crescent organisation carrying 20 tons of humanitarian aid for Yemen has landed in Djibouti.

On May 21, an Iranian cargo ship loaded with aid bound for Yemen arrived in Djibouti. But two days later, authorities in Djibouti turned away an Iranian plane also carrying aid for Yemeni refugees.

In the past, Iran had unsuccessfully attempted to land planes carrying aid directly at the airport in Sanaa. But Tehran has since agreed to have its aid shipments inspected by the United Nations.

* Agence France-Presse, Associated Press