US primarily responsible for senior Ansarullah official’s murder: Houthi

Leader of Yemen's Ansarullah movement Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi has held the United States chiefly responsible for the recent assassination of the country’s head of the Supreme Political Council, Saleh al-Samad, in the western coastal province of Hudaydah.

According to Press TV, addressing his supporters via a televised speech from the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Saturday, Houthi stated that Americans played the leading role in Samad’s murder, and their fighter jets closely monitored the entire phases of the operation.

He added that aggressors were killing innocent Yemeni women and children on a daily part, and their crimes had now become an indispensable part of life in the crisis-hit Arab country.

“Having received the green light from Washington, aggressors are carrying out their appalling crimes against Yemenis as part of their military of tactics,” the Ansarullah chief pointed out.

He further noted that Saudi Arabia and its allies were committing acts of "genocide" in Yemen by targeting civilians and residential neighborhoods.

Houthi also censured the Saudi-led coalition over assassination of Samad, emphasizing that the move was in contravention of international law.

“Samad never took advantage of his position. His primary goal was to serve the interests of the entire Yemeni nation. Officials from the Ansarullah movement will do their utmost to follow in his suit,” Houthi commented.

“Since the beginning of the military onslaught against Yemen, the related developments have pointed to the heroic resistance and steadfastness of the Yemeni nation against the Saudi-led aggression. Aggressors proved their baseness by dispatching warplanes to bombarded Samad’s funeral,” he said.

Houthi added that Samad’s murder boosted public resilience in the face of aggressors, and consolidated their determination for self-sacrifice.

“Aggressors will obtain adverse results out of the assassination. They had planned Samad’s murder in the hope of sowing the seeds of discord and division among Yemenis, and breaking their will. Nevertheless, his martyrdom bolstered their morale and added to their rage against Saudi Arabia and its allies,” the Ansarullah leader underlined.

Houthi concluded that aggressors were weighing plans in order to bring more mercenaries into Yemen.

Arabic-language al-Masirah television network quoted Yemen's Air Force and Air Defense commander Major General Ibrahim al-Shami as saying on Friday that Americans planned and then carried out Sammad’s execution.

He noted that a US MQ-9 Reaper drone fired a missile into his residence in the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah, located 150 kilometers southwest of Sana'a, on April 19.

SS