Member of slain ex-president’s party killed in E. Yemen

By Mubarak Mohamed

HADHRAMAUT, Yemen (AA) - A leading member of Yemen’s General People's Congress (GPC) party was assassinated in the country’s eastern Hadhramaut province, according to local sources.

A local medical source, who declined to be named for security reasons, told Anadolu Agency that unidentified attackers had gunned down Salama Ayed al-Kathiri, a prominent tribal chief in Hadhramaut’s city of Seioun and a GPC leader.

The same source said al-Kathiri’s body had since been taken to a government hospital in Seioun.

No group has claimed responsibility for the murder.

According to the GPC’s official website, al-Kathiri was abducted in mid-2013 by an armed gang -- but later released -- in the Nahm district of Yemen’s Sanaa province. The reason for his abduction remains unclear.

Late last year, Amer al-Kathiri, a member of the same tribe, was similarly killed by unknown assailants in the same province.

Until recently, the GPC was headed by former Yemeni President Ali Abullah Saleh, who was killed late last year outside capital Sanaa by members of the Shia Houthi militia group.

Impoverished Yemen has been dogged by violence and conflict since Houthi rebels overran much of the country -- including capital Sanaa -- in 2014.