Veteran former president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was killed in a roadside attack after switching sides in Yemen's civil war, abandoning his Iran-aligned Houthi allies in favour of a Saudi-led coalition, foes and supporters said.
Analysts said Saleh's death would be a huge moral boost for the Houthis and serious blow to the Saudi-led coalition that intervened in the conflict to try to restore the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Any hope of the coalition that Saleh could have been bought off to help turn the tables against the Houthis after protracted stalemate, in which a Saudi-led blockade and internal fighting has exposed millions to hunger and epidemic, has been dashed.
The coalition will either have to continue waging a grinding war, possibly trying big offensives against Houthi-held areas at the risk of high civilian casualties, or offer compromises to bring the powerful Houthis to the negotiating table.
Sources in the Houthi militia said its fighters stopped Saleh's armoured vehicle with an RPG rocket outside the embattled capital Sanaa and then shot him dead.
Sources in Saleh's party confirmed he died in an attack on his convoy.
Unverified footage of his body in a blanket circulated, just days after he tore up his alliance with the Houthis following nearly three years in which they had jointly battled the Saudi-led coalition.
In a televised speech, Houthi leader Abdul Malikal-Houthi hailed Saleh's death as a victory against the Saudi-led bloc, congratulating Yemenis "on this historic, exceptional and great day in which the conspiracy of betrayal and treason failed, this black day for the forces of the aggression".
He said the Houthis, who hail from a Shi'ite Muslim sect, would maintain Yemen's republican system and not pursue a vendetta against Saleh's party.
Saleh, who ruled for 33 years before he was ousted in 2012, had announced on Saturday the end of his alliance with the Iran-backed Huthis, sparking warnings of retribution from the rebels.
He had joined ranks with the Huthis in 2014 - for decades his bitter enemies - to drive Yemen's Saudi-backed government out of the capital and set up a parallel administration in which the rebels now control the interior ministry.
