Yemen's ex-president Saleh killed (Video)

The National - Former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh was shot dead on Monday in a roadside attack after apparently switching sides in the country's civil war.

Saleh and his supporters formed an alliance with the country's Houthi rebels in 2014 against the internationally recognised government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, Saleh's successor. But this alliance had broken down in recent days as fighting erupted on the streets of the Yemeni capital between the two sides.

The Houthis accused Saleh of a coup on Saturday after he said he was open to talks with the Saudi-led military coalition backing Mr Hadi's government. Two days later he was dead, with rebel sources saying Houthi fighters had stopped Saleh's armoured vehicle with an RPG rocket outside Sanaa before shooting him.

Fahed Al Sharafi, a leading member of the GPC, said Saleh had been betrayed by "some of his consultants who were in fact traitors and conspires".

"We kept advising him constantly not to ally with the rebels but unfortunately he didn't pay attention to us and followed his obstinacy but what done is done no use of crying over the spilt milk," Mr Al Sharafi told Saudi Arabia's Al Arabiya news channel.

Earlier in the day, Sanaa residents had told The National that the Houthis were besieging Saleh's palace, as well as residences belonging to his relatives and prominent supporters. The rebels later said they had blown up Saleh's home.

The violence comes amid a civil war in which renegade soldiers loyal to Saleh and Houthi militants had together been fighting pro-government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition.