Who are Yemen’s Houthis and why the US and Britain launched an attack on them?

The US and Britain launched a joint military strike on Houthi targets in Yemen on Thursday.

The offensive ordered by Washington and London against several rebel-held provinces comes after months of attacks by the Houthis on international-flagged ships using the shipping route. Red Sea.

The Houthis support Hamas in the war that broke out in Gaza on October 7 after the attack launched by the Palestinian militia on Israel that left 1,200 dead. More than 22,000 people have lost their lives on Palestinian territory as a result of the attacks with which Israel responded.

The rebels They warned that they would attack the ships were bound for Israel, although it is not clear that all the ships hit by their offensive were bound for this country.

The Houthis, who have been trying to take control of Yemen since 2015 – a country located right at the gates of the Red Sea – have launched missiles and drones against cargo ships trying to cross the Suez Canal on their way to the West from the East and vice versa. .

These attacks They forced five major companiesincluding the oil company British Petroleum (BP) and the shipping companies MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, to use other, much longer trade routes to protect their crews, ships and goods, causing disruptions in international maritime transport.

Below, BBC Mundo explains who the Houthis are and the context in which Friday’s attack took place.

1. Who are the Houthis and what is their goal?

The Houthis are an armed group in Yemen, belonging to the country’s Shiite Muslim minority, the Zaidis.

It was founded in the 1990s to combat what they perceived as the corruption of then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

They take their name from the founder of the movement, Hussein al Houthi. They also call themselves Ansarolá or the Supporters of God.

After the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Houthis adopted the motto: “God is great. Death to the US, death to Israel. “Curse for the Jews and victory for Islam.”

They declare themselves part of the “axis of resistance” led by Iran against Israel, the US and the West in general, together with Hamas and Hezbollah.

This explains why ships bound for Israel are now being attacked in the Gulf, said Hisham al Omeisy, a Yemen expert at the European Peace Institute.

“Now they are actually fighting against the imperialists, against the enemies of the nation of Islam… That resonated well with their base,” he added.

The Houthis gained major political strength in Yemen in early 2014 when they rebelled against Ali Abdullah Saleh’s successor as president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

After reaching an agreement with Salé, their former enemy, they planned to restore him to power.

They took control of Saada province in northern Yemen and captured the capital Sanaa in early 2015, forcing Hadi to flee abroad.

Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s neighbor, has intervened militarily Try to overthrow the Houthis and bring President Hadi back to power. It was supported by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The Houthis repulsed their attacks and continued to control large parts of Yemen.

Ali Abdullah Saleh was assassinated in 2017 when he tried to switch sides to join the Saudis.

2. Who supports the Houthi rebels?

The Houthi rebels are modeled on Hezbollah, the Shiite armed group in Lebanon.

According to the Counterterrorism Center, a US military research institute, Hezbollah has provided them with extensive military experience and training since 2014.

The Houthis also consider Iran an ally because Saudi Arabia is their common enemy.

Iran is suspected of supplying weapons to the Houthi rebels.

The US and Saudi Arabia say Iran supplied the ballistic missiles that the Houthis fired at the Saudi capital Riyadh in 2017 and were shot down.

Saudi Arabia also blamed Iran for supplying the cruise missiles and drones that the Houthis used to attack Saudi oil facilities in 2019.

The Houthis have fired tens of thousands of short-range missiles at Saudi Arabia and have also attacked targets in the United Arab Emirates.

The supply of these weapons would violate a UN arms embargo. Iran has denied this.

3. Why did the US and Britain attack the Houthi rebels in Yemen?

Following the start of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, Houthi rebels fired dozens of rockets and drones into Israeli territory, and attacked several commercial ships in the Red Sea with drones and ballistic missiles fired from Yemen’s coast.

American, British and French warships They have intercepted many of these projectilesbut several ships were hit.

In that context, the US military’s Central Command said: “These attacks, although launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran.”

Then the US proposed a naval task force to protect commercial shipping from further Houthi attacks.

And this Friday, the United States and Britain launched an offensive that, according to the Pentagon, hit “more than 60 targets at 16 sites of Houthi militants backed by Iran,” including radar systems, warehouses and drone launches. , missile launch and storage facilities and command and control nodes.

There were also reports of attacks in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa, as well as in the Houthi Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Dhamar and Saada, the group’s stronghold in the country’s northwest.

“I will not hesitate to take additional steps as necessary to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce,” President Joe Biden said after confirming the attacks.

For his part, the Houthi deputy foreign minister said, Hussein al-Izzideclared on a Yemeni television channel that the United States and Britain “will pay a high price” for this “blatant aggression.”

A military spokesman for the Houthis further noted that five of their members were killed and six others were injured.

4. How relevant is the area in which the attacks take place?

All this happens on one of the most important shipping lanes in the world: every ship passing through the Suez Canal to or from the Indian Ocean must do so through the Strait of Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea.

The Suez Canal is the fastest shipping route between Asia and Europe and is especially important for the transport of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

About nine million barrels of oil per day were shipped through the Suez Canal in the first half of 2023, according to shipping analytics firm Vortexa.

For their part, S&P Global Market Intelligence analysts said nearly 15% of goods imported to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa were shipped by sea from Asia and the Gulf.

That includes 21.5% refined oil and more than 13% crude oil.

But it’s not just about oil. The ships transport all types of consumer goods found in stores, such as televisions, clothing, sneakers and sporting goods.

5. How powerful are the Houthis and what part of Yemen do they control?

The official government of Yemen is the Presidential Leadership Council, to which President Abd-Rabbu Mansur Hadi transferred his powers in April 2022. The council is based in Riyadh.

However, most of Yemen’s population lives in areas under Houthi control, and the organization collects taxes in the northern part of the country and also prints money.

The UN Security Council quotes an expert on the Houthi movement, Ahmed al Bahri, as saying in 2010 the Houthis had between 100,000 and 120,000 followersconsisting of armed troops and unarmed supporters.

The UN also said nearly 1,500 children recruited by Yemen’s Houthis were killed in fighting in 2020, and hundreds more the following year.

The Houthis control much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, from where they launch their attacks on shipping. (JO)