Keys | Who are Yemen's Houthis and why have the US and UK attacked them?

Planes from the United States and the United Kingdom attacked more than 60 targets of the Houthi rebels in Yemen this morning. This is the first military operation in Yemeni territory since, in October, this fundamentalist militia allied with Iran and Hamas announced the opening of a “third front” in the Red Sea against Israel with the declared purpose of forcing it to end the Gaza war and allow humanitarian aid to enter the Palestinian enclave. The escalation against these rebels, whose attacks on merchant ships threaten maritime traffic in the direction of the Suez Canal, confirms a regional extension – for the moment contained – of that conflict.

Yemeni insurgents have threatened to respond to the attack. Russia, for its part, has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to address the military barrage led by Washington. These keys explain who these militants are and why Washington attacked them in Yemen this Friday.

Who are the Houthis?

The Huthi militia – or Ansar Allá (Supporters of God), its real name – is a Shiite movement that controls 30% of the territory of Yemen, where it has imposed a fundamentalist and repressive regime, accused of serious human rights violations. Founded in the 1990s, its origin was a small religious group, Believer Youth, which aspired to revive the branch of Shiite Islam known as Zaidism, which is professed by a third of the more than 33 million Yemenis.

The group, which had taken up arms in 2003 against the dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, joined the peaceful protests in 2011 for the autocrat to leave power. This did not stop them from arming themselves and seizing more territory until, in 2015, they took the capital, Sanaa, and deposed Saleh's successor, Abdrabbo Mansur Hadi, who ended up in exile in Saudi Arabia. A year later, Riyadh led an international coalition to restore Hadi to power. Since then, that coalition and the Yemeni militia have been at war, although in 2022 both sides agreed to a truce that, de facto, remains in force. The last round of negotiations between the two in September ended without agreement on a definitive ceasefire.

How have they been involved in the conflict?

On October 31, the militia announced the opening of a “third front” against Israel—in addition to the one in Gaza and the one that pits Israel against the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah. Since then, the involvement of these militiamen in the conflict has been increasing.

On November 19, a squadron of hooded men captured the ship in the Red Sea. Galaxy Leader, linked to a British-Israeli billionaire. Attacks on ships bound for the Suez Canal, a route through which around 12% of world trade transits, have already affected merchant ships from 50 countries in 27 attacks carried out so far—the worst of which was last Tuesday— , according to the White House. More than 2,000 ships have been forced to deviate thousands of kilometers or go around Africa to avoid passage through the Red Sea, which has increased freight prices by 170%. On December 19, the United States announced a naval international security mission to counter this threat, in which more than a dozen countries participate, including Spain.

Why does this militia attack ships?

For ideological and strategic reasons. The ideological ones are summarized in its motto: “God is great, death to the United States, death to Israel, curse to the Jews and victory of Islam.” The Houthis consider Israel the enemy of Islam and Muslims, as does Iran, their main supporter, whose hand is seen behind the threat of these insurgents to navigation in the Red Sea, since the Yemeni rebels lack intelligence services that can detect the ships and know their destination and origin, data that Tehran could be providing them.

However, according to several experts, the purpose of putting pressure on Israel may not be the main purpose of the attacks, which also target two strategic purposes for the Houthis. The first is to increase their battered legitimacy in front of their own population and at a regional level, by presenting themselves as champions of the Palestinian cause, almost sacred for many Muslims. This in turn allows them to increase their weight as a regional actor at a time when they are negotiating a definitive peace with Saudi Arabia.

How many are these militiamen and how do they get their weapons?

The main supplier of this group in training, weapons and intelligence is Iran, which provides them with drones, missiles with a range of up to 1,200 kilometers, according to the UN, training and probably intelligence data, such as those provided by the satellites that these rebels do not. have. The Houthis are part of what Iran calls the “axis of resistance” against the United States and Israel, which also includes Hamas and the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah.

The UN estimates that they have about 100,000 supporters, although not all of them are combatants, in a country with almost 33 million inhabitants, and of which they control about 30% of the territory, including the strategic port of Hodeida on the Red Sea. These facilities were attacked this Friday, as it is one of the launching and storage points for the militants' drones and missiles.

Why has Washington attacked now?

Washington had until now been reluctant to attack positions in Yemen for two reasons. The first is the fear of a regional contagion of the war in Gaza, especially since this militia has behind it Iran, Israel's nemesis, which finances Hamas, Hezbollah and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, which are also carrying out attacks against territory. Israeli. The other likely reason is that Saudi Arabia, a crucial US ally, is seeking to exit its costly involvement in the Yemen war and these attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen could push away a definitive ceasefire.

However, the growing aggressiveness of the rebels and the increase in their attacks against merchant ships heading to the Suez Canal have ended up triggering a military response whose purpose is probably as a deterrent. The recipient of this US message in the form of aerial bombardments is not only the Huthi militia, but also Tehran. It does not seem a coincidence that this military operation led by Washington occurred a few hours after Iran announced the capture in the Sea of ​​Oman of an oil tanker that it has described as American.

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