Yemenis slam Saudi regime for assassination President of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council Saleh al-Samad

The image grab from al-Masirah television network shows people attending a massive rally to mark three years of Saudi aggression against Yemen, in Sana'a, March 26, 2018.

Yemeni people have held a massive rally in the port city of Hudaydah to condemn the assassination of President of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council Saleh al-Samad in a recent Saudi airstrike.

The rally was held after Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement confirmed that Samad and six of his companions lost their lives in the airstrike on Hudaydah. The incident happened last Thursday.

Ansarullah leader Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi in a recent live speech called on the Yemeni people to participate in a massive demonstration, urged by Samad days prior to his death, against the Saudi-led war.

Houthi in a televised address later on Monday pledged that Ansarullah would take revenge on the Saudi kingdom. He also said such crimes against the Yemeni nation would not break the will of the people in defending their country against the so-called military coalition.

"This crime will not break the will of our people and state ... [and] will not pass without accountability," Houthi said, adding, "The forces of this aggression led by Washington and the Saudi regime are legally responsible for such a crime and all its implications."

The Saudi campaign was launched in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and against Ansarullah, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective administration. The offensive has, however, achieved neither of its goals despite the spending of billions of petrodollars and the enlisting of Saudi Arabia's regional and Western allies.

President of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council Saleh al-Samad (Photo by Reuters)

The protracted war, which has been accompanied by a naval and aerial blockade, has already killed over 12,000 Yemenis, with the United States and Britain providing the bulk of weapons used by Saudi forces and giving coordinates for the airstrikes.

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights announced in a statement on March 25 that the Saudi-led war had left 600,000 civilians dead and injured during the past three years.

Smoke billows following an airstrike by the Saudi Arabia targeting Dailami air base in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, April 5, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Almost 2,000 people have died since the outbreak of a Cholera epidemic in April, according to the latest figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The United Nations says a record 22.2 million people are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. A high-ranking UN aid official recently warned against the “catastrophic” living conditions in Yemen, stating that there was a growing risk of famine and cholera there.