Houthi militias, backed by Iran, have actively pursued destroying any worthwhile legacy left behind by the slain former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, plundering most of the deceased’s assets and investing it in their war effort.
Sanaa-based members of the General People's Congress (GPC) party sources, the former ruling party which was founded by the late leader, told Asharq Al-Awsat Houthis raided and rebranded a mosque built by Saleh.
According to the sources, who spoke under conditions of anonymity due to security purposes, the mosque now is surrounded by militia outposts, is used as a boot camp for recruiting Yemeni youth plucked from schools and being brainwashed into Houthi-mounted war waged against the poor nation.
Sectarian teachers are spending tremendous time at the mosque Saleh once built for prayers to indoctrinate Yemeni youth into an Iran-inspired agenda.
Sources added that Houthi leadership had assigned group’s Sanaa-based supervisor Khalid al-Madani to overlook ongoing recruitment processes and to preside over management of the executive committee organizing coup-styled summer camps.
More so, a community center built by Saleh had its name changed from Al-Saleh Development Society to the People's Assembly. The renaming of such social facilities is interpreted by observers as a signal for a greater mission Iran-backed Houthis are seeking to accomplish: systematically destroying the memory of Saleh, who served as the first President of Yemen after the country’s unification in 1990.
Not only did Houthi militiamen slap a new name of the center and mosque, but they also plundered assets, accounts, and investments placed in banks under Saleh’s name.
It is estimated that billions of riyals have been pinched by the group.
According to GPC sources, Houthi leaders are hunting down all Saleh’s national achievements to transform them into a coup-serving tool that works to bring the group’s sectarian agenda into reality.
Houthis are actively seeking to polarize the masses, and are employing any podium available at their disposal to do so.
The mosque, for example, is being used to mold more than 500 schoolchildren into loyalists devoted to Tehran’s Khomeini ideology.
On December 4, 2017, the group seized all bank accounts, real estate properties, and assets that not only belong to Saleh, but also to his relatives. All of the pillaged gains are being channeled into financing the movement, paying off mercenaries and supporting to the nationwide coup led against then freely-elected government.
