An armed Houthi follower gestures aftger attending a gathering celebrating Houthi advancement on forces loyal to Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh at Tahrir Square in Sanaa, Yemen December 3. Photo: Reuters

A senior Houthi official confirmed on Monday that former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, his nephew, relatives and the general secretary of Saleh's party were killed.  

According to Reuters,  the official Houthi TV station would soon broadcast footage of his dead body, while social media users in Yemen circulated unverified images of a corpse which resembled the ex-president.

Saleh's party denied to Reuters that their leader had been killed and said he was continuing to lead forces in their clashes against the Houthis in the capital Sanaa.

His whereabouts are unknown and he has made no public appearances since the reports of his death surfaced.

On Sunday, aircraft from the Saudi-led coalition bombed Houthi positions in Sanaa overnight, residents and local media said, aiming to shore up supporters of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh as they battle the Iran-aligned Houthi group.

Saleh announced on Saturday he was ready to turn a “new page” in ties with the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen if it stopped attacks on Yemeni citizens, in a move that could pave the way to end nearly three years of war.

The apparent shift in position came as Saleh’s supporters battled Houthi fighters in Hadda, a district in southern Sanaa where members of Saleh’s family, including his nephew Tareq, live. It was the fourth day of clashes sparked by what Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) called an attempt to seize a main mosque in the city.

The fighting has killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and raised concern of further casualties among civilians.

Houthi followers attend a gathering celebrating Houthi advancement on forces loyal to Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh at Tahrir Square in Sanaa, Yemen December 3, 2017.Photo: Reuters

The clashes had added a new layer to an already complex situation in Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, where a proxy war between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed Hadi has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent times.

Saleh’s announcement was welcomed by the Saudi-led coalition, which has struggled to achieve any progress against the Houthi-Saleh alliance that had controlled most of northern Yemen since 2015 and forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee into exile.

The Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television said coalition aircraft pounded Houthi outposts in southern Sanaa, but gave no details on casualties. Residents reported at least five air strikes shook the highlands of the area.

Inside the city, residents said that Houthi fighters seized television studios of Yemen Today, a news channel owned by Saleh, after clashes that damaged the building. Residents said 20 employees were trapped inside the building.

Saleh had on Saturday issued his message to the Saudi-led coalition in a speech broadcast from the studios.

Yemen descended into violence in late 2014 when the Houthis, a group that hails from the Zaidi branch of Shi‘ite Islam, marched on Sanaa and seized control of the government.

Who's fighting whom?

Yemen, one of the Arab world's poorest countries, has been devastated by a war between forces loyal to the internationally-recognised government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and those allied to the Houthi rebel movement.

How many civilians killed?

More than 8,600 people have been killed and 49,000 injured since March 2015, many of them in air strikes by a Saudi-led multinational coalition that backs the president.

The conflict and a blockade imposed by the coalition have also left 20 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and created the world's largest food security emergency.

Although neither side appears close to achieving a military victory, in December cracks began to appear in the alliance fighting Mr Hadi's forces, which could potentially augur a fresh effort at negotiating an end to the war.

(Compiled by Li Xuanmin)