Ali Abdullah Saleh was a Yemeni politician who served as President of the Yemen Arab Republic from July 1978, after the assassination of President Ahmad al-Ghashmi, to 22 May 1990, when he became the first President of Yemen following Yemeni unification. He led the country until his resignation on 25 February 2012 following the Yemeni Revolution. Often described as a dictator, he has been accused of plundering billions of dollars from the poorest Arab nation during his two decades in power.Saleh oversaw his country's development of deeper ties with Western powers, especially the United States, in their "War on Terror". In 2011, in the wake of the "Arab Spring" that spread across the Middle East, including Yemen, Saleh's time in office became more and more untenable until eventually he was ousted as President in 2012. He was succeeded by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
In May 2015, Saleh openly allied with the Houthis during the Yemeni Civil War, in which a protest movement and subsequent insurgency succeeded in capturing Yemen's capital, Sana'a, causing President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi to resign and flee the country. In December 2017, he declared his withdrawal from his coalition with the Houthis, and instead sided with his former enemies – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and President Hadi. However, accused of treason by the Houthis, he was killed by a Houthi sniper while attempting to flee the capital city of Sana'a amidst the 2017 battle for the city on 4 December 2017.
✵ 21. March 1947 – 4. December 2017
