S. Yemen Regime Says Ex-President Died in Coup Bid
The new regime in South Yemen announced today that former President Abdul-Fattah Ismail died within hours after fighting broke out Jan. 13 in the Marxist Arab nation, a key Soviet ally in the Middle East.
Ismail, 49, the hard-line Marxist ideologue, was named by the former leadership as the mastermind of a coup attempt that began that day against President Ali Nasser Hasani.
Ali Salim Bidh, secretary general of the governing Yemen Socialist Party, said Ismail died “hours after the massacres that Ali Nasser (Hasani) and his clique of conspirators perpetrated.”
In a statement broadcast by state-run Aden radio, monitored in Bahrain, Bidh said Ismail died in an armored vehicle that tried to rescue him from party headquarters shortly after Hasani’s presidential guardsmen gunned down several party leaders.
More to Read
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
