Saleh’s body buried secretly in the absence of relatives

Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh was buried in Sanaa overnight without a ceremony, Yemeni media reported on Wednesday. The newspaper "Al-Mashhad al-Yemeni" said that the group of the Houthis loyal to Iran, buried on Tuesday evening the body of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the cemetery martyrs in the capital Sana'a, in the presence of a number of some of his relatives and from the people of his village.

The Houthi militias have laid down a number of conditions for the relatives of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in return for handing over a body of Saleh; most notably not to announce the date of his burial. The militias also demanded that his funeral should not be popular and confined to his relatives, According to a will recommended by Saleh previously.

In the same context, Houthi insurgents have resorted to terrorizing Yemeni tribes by threatening them of facing a fate similar to that of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed on Monday. A number of tribal elders loyal to the General People’s Congress (GPC) party uncovered that Houthi militias ordered them to announce in writing their support to the rebels, or face the fate of Saleh.

In Riyadh, the Saudi Cabinet expressed hope that the uprising of the Yemeni people against sectarian and terrorist Houthi militias supported by Iran will rid Yemen from persecution, death threats, exclusion, bombings, and seizing public and private properties.

The cabinet reiterated the Kingdom's constant keenness on Yemen's stability and return to its Arab surroundings and all matters in the interest of its people and maintaining their land, security, identity, unity and the social fabric within the framework of Arab, regional and international security.

GPC sources said Tuesday that Houthis were still hiding the corpse of Saleh at a hospital that falls under their control. The militias refused to hand over the body to any of Saleh’s family members or party officials.

Meanwhile, several GPC sources announced that Tarek Saleh, a nephew of the ex-president and commander of his troops, had been killed and his brother Mohammed injured. According to sources close to the family that Tarek was killed in confrontations while defending the house of his uncle and that the militias have kept his body in an unknown location.

Saleh's youngest son Madian was being held by the Houthis while the fate of his second son, Salah, remained unknown. The sources also confirmed the ex-president’s deputy Aref Zoka had been killed.

Yemen’s former president was shot dead on Monday by Houthi insurgents in Sana’a, leading to widespread anger among Yemenis, amid signs of an emerging alliance between political forces opposed to the coup and tribes that expressed their wish for revenge.