SANAA: Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they executed nine people on Saturday for involvement in the killing of one of their top leaders in a 2018 air strike claimed by Saudi Arabia.

Saleh al-Sammad was head of the Houthis’ supreme political council and his death three years ago was seen as a major blow to the Iran-backed rebels who control Sanaa.

The pro-rebel Saba news agency said the nine were shot by a firing squad at a square in the Yemen capital.

They were among 16 people convicted of involvement in his killing by a Houthi court.

Seven other people — including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and former US president Donald Trump — were tried in absentia by the court and also sentenced to death.

Sammad was killed in April 2018 alongside six other people in an air strike in the western Yemeni province of Hodeida.

“The general prosecution has carried out the death sentence against nine people involved in the murder” of Sammad, Saba reported.

“They were shot to death in Tahrir Square... in the presence of senior Houthi leaders and Sanaa residents,” the agency added. Saudi Arabia said later that it carried out the air strike.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2021