American Herald Tribune | MARWA OSMAN: Yemen took front pages and headlines around the world this week not because of the genocide that has been taking place for the past two and a half years, or the famine, or the rising number of deaths as a result of the outbreak of Cholera and Diphtheria due to the continuous Saudi blockade on the country, but because an old page in Yemen’s history has been folded for good. The "historic" Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh ended up drowning in his blood after fleeing the failure of his coup against his own allies Ansarullah.

Ali Abdullah Saleh dominated the political life of his country for close to four decades. He was president for 33 years and survived the 2011 upheavals that rocked the Arab world, stepping down after political negotiations while tyrants elsewhere were cast out or killed. He later reemerged, allying himself to a resistance that ousted the weak Saudi-backed government that had replaced him, and became a key player in the Saudi relentless war that has ravaged Yemen for almost the past three years.

Many questions and scenarios surfaced after the killing of a "man of all phases", ranging from partisan and tribal reactions to the political and military situation, to the reading of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi for the loss of a new "proxy" battle with Ansarullah.

Yesterday, the once man of all trades emerged from the political arena, which he had memorized its corridors and moved from one level to another in a sneaky way, he emerged as a blood-stained body mounted on a blanket.

It was “The End”, declared the leader of Ansarullah Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, a blow to “the forces of aggression and the Al Saud regime, and the US and Britain behind them”, while he addressed the Yemenis yesterday making it clear to the Saudis and their allies that their “aggression is a failure” and that “it won’t get them anywhere" in Yemen.



The 75-year-old ousted president was apparently killed on Monday by Tribes allegiant to the Ansarullah Resistance Movement. Though the circumstances of his death were not clear, some reports suggested he attempted to flee the capital, Sanaa, but was stopped and killed at one of the checkpoints outside Sanaa.

The ultimate question that so far no one has been able to answer is: what was it that changed the rules of the game and made Saleh switch sides to begin with leading up to his death?

Well as reported yesterday by Iranian researcher Dr. Mohamed Sadiq al-Husseini, Saleh was being prepared to lead a coup against the supporters of Ansarullah for his return to the Yemeni scene and eventually install his son Ahmed, who is based in the UAE, as Yemen’s president under the patronage of the UAE.

In the details of this coup, Hussieni reported that the coup against Ansarullah began about eight months ago. Mohammed Ben Zayed, General Shaul Mofaz, former Israeli War Minister, Mohammed Dahlan, former Fatah Central Committee member, and Ahmad Ali Abdullah Saleh, the son of the slain Yemeni president, were all involved in the planning. The planning of the operation was initiated in Abu Dhabi, where the coup plan was penned by Mohammed bin Zayed. After that, the headquarters of the meetings was transferred to the island of Socotra, which was sold by the ousted Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi to the Emiratis. A total of nine meetings were held on the island, involving UAE officers deployed in southern Yemen and Israeli officers recommended by Shaul Mofaz.

Husseini continued, that as part of the plan, it was decided to train 1,200 close associates of Ali Abdullah Saleh in the camps of the UAE forces in the city of Aden to be the leading forces for those to be later recruited and trained in Sanaa and its environs, which will then be responsible for carrying out the coup d'état.

And then it began, funds were allocated to cover the training costs of a total of 6,000 of Saleh’s men in Sanaa and its environs under the umbrella of training for the reinforcement of fronts. Mohammed bin Zayed's operations room transferred a total of 289 million USD from Aden to Sanaa through intermediaries of Ali Abdullah Saleh's relatives between February and June 2017. In addition, 100 million USD were transferred to Saleh between August 2017 and the end of October 2017.

The coup was supposed to be carried out on the 24th of August, but the UAE and Israeli officers postponed the operation to a later date for two reasons: first, the lack of readiness of Saleh's forces, and second was Ansarullah supporters discovering the coup plan and controlling all entrances to the capital and its perimeter tightly.

A new decision was taken by the coup planners to arm and train the total of 8,000 fighters in Sanaa and its surroundings. The mission was entrusted to local smugglers, along with 16 supply experts from ISIS who had been transferred from Iraq to the Sheikh Osman area of ??Aden earlier this year as well as four former Israeli officers who had entered the Aden area with the help of the Emiratis.

According to Ansarullah supporters, weapons were covertly stored in 49 different secret points in Sanaa, as per a specific mobilization plan that depends on the distribution of weapons to individuals to be deployed in the city at zero hour determined by the military operations room to certify the element of surprise and to secure speed of decisiveness when starting to move against the supporters of Ansarullah in the capital Sanaa. This plan did eventually work from a military technical point of view late last week, which made Ali Abdullah Saleh refuse to make any concessions to Ansarullah until the night of December 3rd, as he believed he had enough weapons and gunmen to control Sanaa within a maximum of six hours but eventually failed.

When the leadership of the Ansarullah movement realized that the negotiations with Saleh will not work, they informed the mediators that they can guarantee a safe exit for Ali Abdullah Saleh in exchange for ending the coup, warning that if he did not agree, they would resolve the situation militarily and control Sanaa and its surroundings within three hours, which is what happened between the 2nd and 3rd of December 2017.

After the situation was completely resolved in Sanaa by Ansarullah, Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to flee outside the capital. This was done in coordination with the UAE through his son, where the coalition warplanes escorted his motorcade, consisting of three armored vehicles. The convoy also included six four-wheel-drive vehicles equipped with 23 mm machine guns and two Toyota Pickups with 37 mm machine guns.

Lebanese based Al Mayadeen TV channel reported that 11 checkpoints were bombed by the coalition warplanes to secure a passage way for Saleh to flee from Sanaa.

This led to an exchange of fire at one of the checkpoints in Sayyan south of Yemen with Ansarullah supporters. The coalition aircraft bombed the site of the clash to prevent Ansarullah fighters from arresting Ali Abdullah Saleh alive so as not to reveal the details of the plot carried out in coordination with the UAE, the Saudis and the Israelis.

Hence, the decision to terminate Ali Abdullah Saleh was taken by the leadership of the coalition to cover up direct military and security cooperation with Israel in order to take control over the capital Sanaa.