Yemeni Socialist Leader-And His Two Year Old- Murdered
As earlier reported here and updated here, the government of Yemen struck a deal in January with “co-opted terrorists”. The jihaddists agreed to target the regime’s political foes in exchange for money, prisoner releases and the city of Ja’ar.
In an apparent culmination of the deal, two southern political leaders have been assassinated in Amran governorate, north of the capital Sana’a in the last week. A two year old child was also murdered in his father’s arms. An Arabic language report is here.
Mohsen Wakaz was murdered today along with his toddler son, Chavez. Wakaz was the deputy secretary of the Socialist Party in Amran governorate. He was ambushed by unidentified gunmen. On Sunday, Ali Saleh Alzakeri was murdered. He was one of the Socialist Party leaders in the same governorate. Party leaders have denounced the murders and declared their resolve in the face of the assassination campaign.
The Yemeni government has regularly deployed terrorists as mercenaries. President Saleh’s northern forces won the 1994 civil war over the Yemeni Socialist Party in part due to the participation of veterans of the Afghan jihad. More recently, the government of Yemen incorporated jihaddists as trainers and fighters in the northern Sa’ada war that raged since 2004 against the Shiite “Houthi” rebels. In addition, several prominent opposition leaders have been killed, for example, the murder of Jarallah Omar by a jihaddist in 2002. Omar was the architect of the rapprochement among Yemen’s opposition parties. All in all, 152 Socialist leaders were assassinated between 1990-1993.
