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.
Also known as: Saleh Musleh Qassem · Salih Muslih Qasim
Activities and affiliations
-
–1986
South Yemen state institutionsMinister of DefenceMain
Military command
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
Related historical events
Intra-party opposition and the 1986 crisis
As conflict over the distribution of power within the Yemeni Socialist Party intensified in the early 1980s, Qasim emerged alongside former defence minister Ali Antar as a central figure in the heterogeneous opposition seeking the return of Abdul Fattah Ismail. Ismail returned to Aden in March 1985 and sought to regain influence in the party. At the Third Party Congress that year, a compromise gave President Ali Nasir Muhammad’s supporters a majority on the Central Committee while the opposition gained control of the Politburo. It did not resolve the dispute over appointing the Politburo’s new officials.
On 13 January 1986, the opposition intended to discuss the distribution of responsibilities in the Politburo when guards of Muhammad’s faction opened fire in the meeting hall. A contemporary report by the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) describes the action as a “preemptive coup” by Muhammad and notes that a broadcast claim that the opposition had tried to assassinate the president and been executed after trial was false: no such trial had taken place, and two of the four named men were still alive when the announcement aired. Qasim was killed in the gunfire at the meeting. Fighting in Aden continued for more than a week and ended with Muhammad and his supporters defeated and fleeing north. The episode formed part of the process by which an intra-party struggle escalated into armed conflict and the South Yemeni civil war.