The speaker of the Yemeni parliament, Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar, has died of cancer, the official Saba news agency reported on Saturday. Ahmar, 84, who was also the head of the Al-Islah (Reform) Party, the main Islamist opposition party, died in a hospital in Riyadh after a six-month fight with the illness.
According to AFP, he was the head of the main Hashed tribal confederation and a key figure among the leaders who brought the monarchy down in 1962 in Yemen. But because of illness Ahmar had been unable to perform his role as speaker of parliament for more than a year, much of which he spent in Saudi Arabia for treatment. He was named as Speaker in 1993.
An official source told Saba that the funeral would be held next Monday the main cemetery of the capital Sana'a.
