Iran Condoles with Ansarullah Chief over Brother’s Death

Ibrahim Badreddin al-Houthi

“There is no doubt that this great crime, along with other crimes committed so far in the unsuccessful war against the Yemeni nation, indicates the weakness and desperation of hawkish aggressors and mercenaries in confrontation with Yemeni forces,” Zarif said in a Saturday night message.

“The crime will not only fail to weaken the resolve and morale of the patient and resilient nation of Yemen, but will further put on show the rightfulness of this brave nation,” Zarif noted.

“I condole with you, your respected family, and the resilient and patient nation of Yemen on the martyrdom of your struggling brother Ibrahim Badreddin al-Houthi,” he said.

“I beseech merciful God to have mercy and bestow highest divine rewards on the honourable martyr, and give great patience and reward to you and your respectable family,” he added.

Yemen’s Interior Ministry announced on Friday that the “treacherous hands affiliated with the US-Israeli aggression and its tools have assassinated Ibrahim Badreddin al-Houthi.”

The statement did not provide any further details regarding al-Houthi’s assassination, who is said to have been an influential military commander among the Houthi forces.

Other Yemeni sources reported that al-Houthi’s body, along with a number of Houthi commanders, had been discovered in a house following a Saudi strike in the city of Haddeh in Yemen’s west-central province of Sana’a.

Informed Yemeni sources later said security forces have uncovered the cell behind the assassination.

The sources, requesting not to be named, told Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network that Yemeni security forces had managed to capture 80 percent of the members of the cell, adding that they are undergoing an in-depth investigation.

The sources further noted that the detainees had confessed to having affiliation with the Saudi intelligence agency, and said they had received orders from a militia leader when former president Ali Abdullah Saleh was in power.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.