- Title: YEMEN-KILLING/RALLY Sanaa students condemn killing of Yemeni liberal party leader
- Date: 4th November 2014
- Summary: SANAA, YEMEN (NOVEMBER 3, 2014) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS GATHERED OUTSIDE SANAA UNIVERSITY PROTESTERS HOLDING BANNERS CONDEMNING KILLING VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS HOLDING PICTURES OF DECEASED POLITICIAN MOHAMED ABDELMALIK AL-MOTAWAKAL MORE OF PROTEST (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR ZAID ATTIF, SAYING: "The assassination of Mohamed is like the assassination of the Yemeni
- Embargoed: 19th November 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Yemen
- Country: Yemen
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA6R3OR6OD39U1Q74HDXE0TE919
- Story Text: Students and professors of Sanaa University gathered on Monday (November 3) to condemn the killing of someone they called a 'thinking man' and proponent of the idea of a civil state.
Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a leader of a liberal Yemeni political party that is close to the powerful Houthi rebel group on Sunday (November 2), the official state news agency Saba said.
The killing took place one day after Yemen's main political factions, including the Houthis, signed an agreement mandating the president and prime minister to form a new government in an effort to defuse political tensions in the impoverished state.
Gunmen on a motorbike shot Mohamed Abdelmalik al-Motawakal of the Union of Popular Forces party as he was walking in a street close to his home in central Sanaa, Saba said. He died in hospital, medical sources said.
The Zaydi Houthis are close to the Union of Popular Forces, which is a liberal party but dominated by Zaydis, a sect of Shi'ite Islam that predominates in Northern Yemen.
"The assassination of Mohamed is like the assassination of the Yemeni dream. Every national seeks safe and wise ways of leading a civil life and to build a civil state," said university professor Zaid Attif at the protest at Sanaa University.
"There is a clearing out of thinking people, the matter is not connected to political conflict. It is a targeting of those who carry the idea of the civil life and state," said university professor Aminah al-Nosiri.
In recent months, the Houthis have become Yemen's main power-brokers and sent their militiamen into the west and center of the country, far beyond their traditional redoubts. They captured the capital Sanaa on Sept. 21, following weeks of anti-government unrest.
The Zaydi Houthi movement, which calls itself Ansar Allah, condemned the assassination and blamed the government for not providing better security.
The Houthi takeover of Sanaa and their spread into central and west Yemen antagonised Sunni tribesmen and al Qaeda militants, who regard the Houthis as heretics.
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