Ansarullah Rejects Saudi Claim about Leader’s Death

(FNA)- Yemen's Ansarullah movement dismissed a Saudi report claiming that the movement's leader Abdolmalek Houthi was killed in Sa'ada province.

Ansarullah movement announced on its tweeter page that the reports claiming that Abdolmalek Houthi has been killed are nothing new and enemy media have made similar claims repeatedly.

"The Ansarullah leader is safe and full healthy," it added.

Yemen's al-Aan news website had quoted Ahmed al-Asiri, the spokesman of the Saudi-led military operations, as claiming that Abdolmalek Houthi had been killed by an airstrike on Sa'ada province.

The claim was raised after reports said that the missiles fired by the Yemenis against Saudi Arabia killed Lieutenant General Muhammad bin Ahmed al-Shaalan, the commander of the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF).

The official Saudi Press Agency, quoting the Ministry of Defense, said on Wednesday that Shaalan had died of a heart attack during a work trip outside the kingdom. But later on Wednesday sources in New York challenged the Saudi news agency's report, saying the General was killed in Yemen's missile attacks.

An informed Yemeni source who called for anonymity said in New York on Wednesday that "Shaalan was killed in the Yemeni army's missile attacks against Saudi Arabia's Khamees al-Mushait region five days earlier".

Then on Thursday, another well-known Saudi source rejected the official account on Shaalan's death, saying that his body was charred showing that he had been killed in an enemy attack.

Jamal Bean wrote on his Tweeter page that Shaalan and his accompanying team have been killed in the Yemeni army's missile attack since their corpses were scorched by the fire of a blast.

The Yemeni army targeted Amir Khalid military base in Khamees al-Mushait region by a Scud missile earlier this week.

The Saudi army claimed that it had intercepted the Scud by two Patriot missiles, but the Arabic-language Al-Mayadeen news channel showed footage of the missile attack, reporting that it had hit the target.

Following the attack the Saudi army evacuated the passenger terminals of two airports in the nearby areas.

Also, Arab media reports said earlier that two Saudi military bases in the bordering areas came under missile attack by the Yemeni forces.

Al-Mayadeen quoted a military source in Yemen as saying that the army and popular forces targeted the two military bases of Ain al-Harrah and Malhamah with 10 and 7 missiles, respectively, on Tuesday.

The Yemeni forces also fired 11 missiles at military positions behind Jabal al-Dokhan in the Southwestern city of Jizan.

On Sunday, media reports said that the Saudis, including Royal family members, were in a rush to flee the country after Yemen's first Scud missile hit a military airbase in Saudi Arabia's South on Saturday.

"The Saudi residents of Khamees al-Mushait are waiting in a several-kilometer-long trail of cars to flee after their city was hit by Yemeni Scud missiles," the Arabic-language Sa'ada Press news website reported.