An Israeli airstrike killed the prime minister of the Houthi rebel-controlled government in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, the Houthis said on Saturday. He was the most senior Houthi official killed in the Israeli-US campaign against the Iranian-backed rebels.
Ahmed al-Rahawi was killed in Thursday’s strike in Sana’a along with a number of ministers, the rebels said in a statement.
Other ministers and officials were wounded, the statement added, without providing details.
Photo: EPA
The premier was targeted along with other members of his Houthi-controlled government during a “routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year,” the Houthi statement said.
Thursday’s strike took place as the rebel-owned television station was broadcasting a speech by Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the secretive leader of the rebel group, in which he was sharing updates on the latest Gaza developments and vowing retaliation against Israel.
Al-Rahawi was not part of the inner circle around al-Houthi that runs the military and strategic affairs of the group. His government, like the previous ones, was tasked with running the day-to-day civilian affairs in Sana’a and other Houthi-held areas.
The strike that killed the prime minister targeted a meeting for Houthi leaders in a villa in Beit Baws, an ancient village in southern Sana’a, three tribal leaders told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it “precisely struck a Houthi terrorist regime military target in the area of Sana’a in Yemen.”
Late on Saturday, the military in a statement confirmed killing al-Rahawi “along with additional senior officials.”
It said senior officials among the dozens at the facility struck were responsible for “terror actions” against Israel.
“Yemen endures a lot for the victory of the Palestinian people,” al-Rahawi said following an Israeli strike on Sunday last week that struck a facility owned by the country’s main oil company, which is controlled by the rebels in Sana’a, as well as a power plant.
The strike came three days after the Houthis launched a ballistic missile toward Israel that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels had launched at it since 2023.
Al-Rahawi was an ally of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and was appointed as prime minister by the Houthis in August last year.
US and Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people in Yemen. One US strike in April hit a prison holding African migrants in northern Sadaa province, killing at least 68 people and wounding 47 others.
Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst with the Crisis Group International, a Brussels-based think tank, called the killing of the Houthi prime minister a “serious setback” for the rebels.
It marks a shift from striking the rebels’ infrastructure to targeting their leaders, including senior military figures, which “poses a greater threat to their command structure,” he said.
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