Yemen: Al-Islah Party’s leader survives assassination

The head of the Information Department of the Yemeni Al-Islah Party in the province of Rima, Mosleh Al-Ahmadi, survived an assassination attempt in Sana’a’s north-eastern city of Marib.

According to local sources, an explosive device was found in Al-Ahmadi’s car which was parked in front of his home in Marib. The sources added that the device exploded “moments before his usual departure.”

Al-Islah Party is one of the largest opposition parties in Yemen which was founded after the unification of the country on 13 September 1990 as a political party with an Islamic background.

It is the main backer of the internationally-recognised government and the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Over past few months, the UAE-backed forces launched a campaign of arrests against the party leaders in Yemen’s southern coastal province of Aden.

The current period was reported to have seen as a prelude to a shift in the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated party.

Yemen fell into civil war in 2014 when Houthis overran much of the country, forcing Yemen’s Saudi-backed government to set up an interim capital in Aden.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies began a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi military gains in Yemen.