Saleh, Ali Abdullah (1942- )

Yemeni politician and soldier, president from 1990. He became president of North Yemen on the assassination of its president (allegedly by South Yemen extremists) in 1978, and was re-elected to the post in 1983 and 1988. In 1990 he was elected president of a reunified Yemen, but within three years differences between north and south had resurfaced and civil war re-erupted in 1994. Saleh's army inflicted a crushing defeat on the southern forces of Vice-President al-Baidh, who fled into exile, and a new ruling coalition was formed. He was re-elected in 1999.