Wael al-Absi was killed while covering fighting between Gulf-monarchy-backed forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and forces loyal to the Houthi militia and former president Ali Abdullah Saleh on the eastern outskirts of the central Yemeni city of Taiz, according to local officials, news reports, and the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate. Takieddin al-Hudhaifi was also killed in the same incident. Two other cameramen, Salahuddin al-Wahbani and Walid al-Qadasi, were injured, according to reports.
According to another journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity because he travels between areas controlled by the rival parties to the conflict, a shell hit the building where al-Absi and others had taken cover from crossfire near the front line, killing al-Absi and al-Hudhaifi and wounding al-Wahbani and al-Qadasi. It was unclear whether the building was targeted because the journalists were inside. The same journalist added that al-Absi had also been injured while covering fighting last year.
Al-Absi freelanced for Yemen’s official satellite TV channel, and was a student at Taiz University, studying mass communication.