Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday held a funeral for the prime minister and 11 other senior officials killed in an Israeli airstrike that decimated the political Cabinet.
Twelve coffins draped in flags were displayed at al-Shaab mosque in Sana’a, as masked gunmen patrolled the area and thousands of mourners flooded in.
Houthi prime minister Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, nine ministers and two Cabinet officials were killed as they attended a government meeting in Sana’a on Thursday last week.
Photo: EPA
It was the highest profile assassination to be announced in Yemen in months of attacks by Israel during the Gaza war. The US also waged an intense bombing campaign against Houthi targets from March to May.
The Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones toward Israel throughout the Gaza war.
The Israeli military on Monday said that it had intercepted a drone launched from Yemen before it entered Israeli territory.
The Houthis on Sunday detained at least 11 UN workers as part of a roundup, prompting a protest from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
A Yemeni security source on Saturday said that Houthi authorities had arrested dozens of people in Sana’a and other areas “on suspicion of collaborating with Israel.”
The Houthis on Sunday also fired a missile at an Israeli tanker in the Red Sea, reprising a campaign waged throughout the Gaza war.
The missile landed close to the Liberian-flagged Scarlet Ray with a “loud bang,” the UK Maritime Trade Operations monitoring agency said.
Last week’s Israeli strike wiped out about half of the 22-strong Houthi Cabinet, which plays a mainly administrative role.
Al-Rahawi was from the southern province of Abyan, which is not part of the large swathes of Yemen under Houthi control.
The Houthis, who hail from divided Yemen’s rugged north, have traditionally reserved the role of prime minister for southerners in an attempt to win hearts and minds.
US-based Yemen analyst Mohammed al-Basha said last week’s strike might signal an Israeli shift toward targeted killings, an approach that gutted the leadership of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The attack could mark “the beginning of a campaign of targeted assassinations against both civilian and military Houthi leadership, even at informal gatherings,” he wrote on social media, calling it a “bad day” for the group.
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