AL-MUKALLA: A former Yemeni ambassador and retired military commander has been shot dead by a gunman at his residence in Houthi-held Sanaa.
Maj. Gen. Dirham Noman was killed instantly after the armed man broke into his home on Sunday and opened fire, before fleeing the scene.
Noman was a former ambassador to Ethiopia and governor of many Yemeni regions. As a military leader he had participated in the 1962 revolution in North Yemen.
He had been the governor of Dhamar, Marib, Shabwa and Jouf provinces at various times, as well as a diplomat and the head of the Aden Free Zone following Yemen's unification in 1990.
His assailant has been identified as a friend of his by Houthi officials, who have provided no explanation for the crime.
Noman was one of many Yemeni army generals and politicians who decided to remain in Sanaa, where they neither resisted the repressive Houthi regime nor backed the internationally recognized government.
He was mourned by a large group of individuals, including Yemen’s parliamentary spokesperson Sultan Al-Baraki, who called him “a seasoned military commander, an adept politician, a skilled administrator and an experienced organizer.”
Speaker of the Shoura Council Ahmed Obaid bin Dagher accused the Houthis following Noman’s death, describing him as a vital player in the revolution and “a loyal and true” official.
He added on Twitter: “I hold the Houthi militia accountable for the death of the martyr Maj. Gen. Dirham Noman, and everyone should denounce this terrorist and criminal action that attacked one of the republic’s and revolution’s symbols.”
Local media also reported on Sunday night that a young man had been killed and two others injured after a Houthi opened fire on them in Sanaa.
The city has seen a succession of homicides in recent times with politicians, military and security personnel, and judges being killed.
Mohammed Hamran, a 63-year-old Supreme Court judge in Sanaa, was taken off a city street by unknown armed men in September and found dead days later.
In 2020, unidentified people on a motorcycle killed Hassan Zaid, the Houthi government’s minister of youth and sport, in the capital’s diplomatic area.
