According to Houthi-run Al Masirah television reports, al-Samad was assassinated last Thursday after the Saudi-led coalition targeted his residence in the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah. Following the Houthis’ announcement, a video, allegedly showing the Saudi raid, appeared on YouTube: one of the missiles hit a car, while the other is believed to have targeted another car and several people standing nearby.
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The authenticity of the footage has yet to be verified; Riyadh, for its part, has neither confirmed, nor denied the reports.
On April 26, thousands of Yemenis took to the streets in wake of the airstrikes to protest al-Samad’s assassination, with Yemeni forces promising a “crushing response” to the Saudi-led coalition.
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Yemen has been engulfed in a violent civil war between the government, headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, and the Houthi movement. Since 2015, the Saud-led coalition, consisting mostly of Persian Gulf countries, has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi’s request; the rebels, in turn, were allied with Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed in December 2017.
