Saleh Muslih Qasim
صالح مصلح قاسم
South Yemen's defence minister, shot in the January 1986 Aden violence
On 13 January 1986 guards of Ali Nasir Muhammad opened fire on opposition Politburo members in the Central Committee meeting hall; he was killed there.
A South Yemeni soldier and politician who served as a Politburo member of the Yemeni Socialist Party and as minister of defence. He joined the National Liberation Front against British colonial rule, rose through the army after independence, and after the party split sided with the al-Tugma faction that supported Abdul Fattah Ismail. He was killed on 13 January 1986 when Ali Nasir Muhammad's guards opened fire on opposition Politburo members at the Central Committee meeting hall in Aden; his death was one of the triggers of the civil war that followed.
Career timeline
- 1960sJoined the National Liberation Front against British colonial rule
- after 1967Rose through the armed forces of the new state after independence; commanded the 22nd Infantry Brigade
- 1978Already a senior figure in the party when the Yemeni Socialist Party was founded
- 1979.08.11Dismissed as Minister of Interior during an intra-party struggle
- 1980.10.16–1981.08.30Minister of Interior (some sources date this 1980–1982)
- 1981.08.30–1986.01.13Minister of Defense, retained in the eighth government formed in February 1985 under Haidar al-Attas (some sources date it from 1982)
- 1986.01.13Killed by gunfire at the Central Committee meeting hall in Aden