UPDATE 2 - Ex-Yemen president shot dead by Houthis near Sanaa

UPDATES WITH ADDITIONAL DETAILS

SANAA (AA) - Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was killed on Monday by Houthi militiamen in capital Sanaa, according to Houthi spokesmen and a leading member of Saleh’s General People's Congress (GPC) party.

The GPC member, who insisted on anonymity due to the issue’s sensitivity, told Anadolu Agency that Houthi militants had shot Saleh dead after stopping the former president’s car near Sanaa.

According to the same source, Houthi militiamen stopped Saleh’s motorcade some 40 kilometers south of Sanaa before taking him to an unknown location and executing him.

Shortly afterward, the Houthi leadership issued a statement confirming Saleh’s death by firing squad.

The GPC source also confirmed the death of Yasser al-Awadi, a senior GPC leader and member of Yemen’s parliament, who had been accompanying Saleh when his vehicle was waylaid.

According to the party source, al-Awadi was also shot by firing squad.

Local Yemeni media, meanwhile, is also reporting that Aref al-Zuka, the GPC's secretary-general who had also reportedly been accompanying Saleh, had met the same fate.

Until recently, Saleh’s GPC party had been the primary ally of Yemen’s Shia Houthi militia, which overran much of the country -- including capital Sanaa -- in 2014.