Maj Gen P K Mallick, VSM (Retd)
The Houthis took over Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and tried to extend their influence south, grabbing control of most of the country. The Houthi rebels have been fighting a civil war since 2014 against Yemen’s government.
XThe name from the movement's founder, Hussein al Houthi. The group was formed in the 1990s.
The Houthis are an armed group from a sub-sect of Yemen’s Shia Muslim minority, the Zaidis. They take their name from the movement’s founder, Hussein al Houthi. The group was formed in the 1990s when a group then called itself Ansar Allah (“Supporters of God”) started to resist Saudi preaching of Wahabism and to assert Zaidi identity and religious practice across Yemen. Zaidism is a variant of Shiism local to northern Yemen and parts of southern Saudi Arabia. There are important doctrinal differences between mainstream Shiism and Zaidi Islam.
They started resisting the corruption of the then-president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. As the movement started opposing the corruption of Saleh’s regime and his partnership with the United States in the global war on terror, it added Yemeni supporters beyond the Zaidi community. President Saleh, backed by a coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, tried to eliminate the Houthi rebels in 2003. Beginning in 2004, Saleh’s government launched six brutal rounds of fighting—killing the group’s charismatic leader, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi. These military efforts failed to root out the movement. The Houthis repelled them.
When the Arab Spring came to Yemen in 2011, President Saleh was eventually forced to step down. The Houthis took over Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and tried to extend their influence south, grabbing control of most of the country. The Houthi rebels have been fighting a civil war since 2014 against Yemen’s government.
The 2014 rise of Houthis triggered alarm in neighbouring countries, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Houthis also began to receive support from Iran and their proxy Hezbollah, adversaries to the Saudis and Emiratis. In 2015, a coalition led by those two countries and supported by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France intervened militarily, launching airstrikes to support other military organisations that backed Hadi’s government
The airstrikes helped aggravate a war instead of restoring peace. It resulted in what the United Nations has called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Between 2015 and 2022, airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, supported by U.S. intelligence-sharing, aerial refuelling and aircraft maintenance, killed an estimated 9,000 Yemeni civilians. Four-and-a-half million Yemenis were displaced and more than 21 million, or two-thirds of Yemen’s population, remain in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.
According to the UN, the official government of Yemen is the Presidential Leadership Council, to which President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi transferred his powers in April 2022. However, the government is based in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, after Hadi fled there in 2015.
Most of the Yemeni population lives in areas under Houthi control. They control most of northwest Yemen as well as Sanaa and the north of Yemen. The Houthi rebels control the Red Sea coastline. The group collects taxes and also prints money. 
Since seizing the Yemeni capital of Sana’a in September 2014, the Houthis have systematically developed and refined their political and military capabilities. They have evolved from a highly capable guerrilla group to a near-state-level organisation and are now capable of projecting power within the region. The Houthis are financially self-sufficient, earning revenue through taxation, customs charges and service fees and smuggling operations. They’re seeking international recognition as a legitimate military and political force in Yemen The Houthis fight under the slogan “God is Great; death to America; death to Israel; damn the Jews; victory for Islam”.
The Houthis are part of Iran’s Axis of Resistance, the network of state and non-state actors including Hamas and Hezbollah that Iran has leveraged to spread its influence across the region and encircle its opponents like Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Houthis are also belligerent to the U.S. for the latter’s support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE for interfering in Yemen’s ongoing civil war. The Houthis overthrew an internationally recognised government, violated human rights, used child soldiers and imposed their version of “Fiver” Shi’a Islam on the Yemeni population, persecuting those who resisted. During the height of the civil war, the group also contributed to Yemen’s humanitarian disaster by blocking ports through which international aid was intended to flow and fired missiles and drones on Saudi and Emirati population centres with the sole intention of terrorising civilians.
Saudis and their UAE allies could not reverse the Houthis’ illegal takeover of the country. The Houthis targeted Saudi airports, cities and petrochemical facilities with missile and drone strikes. According to Rusi, they launched 340 missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia in March 2021 alone.
Today, there is a fragile truce in Yemen and the Saudis have no wish to derail that. The Saudi leadership is also acutely aware of how popular the Houthi stand is with some of their own population.
The popularity of the Houthis has eroded in recent years. They have been unable to deliver economic growth and remain the poorest country in the Middle East and North Africa. The Houthis are also brutally repressive, torturing and executing journalists, arresting and detaining peaceful protesters and restricting the rights of women and girls. Many Yemenis increasingly see the Houthis as driven by a desire to establish a totalitarian religious state that protects Zaidi elites’ power.
In September 2023, protests against the Houthis for failing to pay public-sector salaries were followed by arrests. However, the Houthi leadership recognised it had a problem. In September 2023, they announced they were preparing a “radical change” to their government to deal with corruption and economic problems. The Israel-Hamas war gave them a chance to gain legitimacy.
The attacks on Red Sea shipping and the high-profile hijacking of the Galaxy Leader provided domestic and international dividends for the Houthis. The Houthis have turned the Galaxy Leader, which is anchored off the Yemeni coast, into a popular tourist attraction. Domestic support for the Houthis has increased and support for the Houthis from Yemen’s well-armed northern tribes has been strengthened.
Adept at asymmetric warfare, the Houthis understand the importance of leverage. Their ability to strike targets in Saudi Arabia and the UAE has brought the Saudis to the negotiating table. The Houthis want to increase their leverage in the ongoing Saudi-Houthi talks, which have not ceased despite recent changes in regional dynamics. The Saudis would prefer not to re-engage in an open, direct and protracted military confrontation with the Houthis.
Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are working to upgrade, expand and network their air defences. In the case of a mass launch of drones and missiles in a swarm attack from Yemen, many targets would be struck. Neither the UAE nor Saudi Arabia can afford to have high-profile sites struck by the Houthis’ drones or missiles.
The Houthis have used their attacks in the Red Sea and on Israel to demonstrate their importance to Iran’s “axis of resistance,” Iran values the Houthis because they let Iran act more widely while maintaining plausible deniability. For instance, the Houthis claimed responsibility for a September 2019 drone attack on Saudi oil facilities of Aramco. It is widely believed that the attack could not have been possible without the active support of Iran.
The Houthis control Yemen, a tanker moored near the port of Hodeidah, which holds over a million barrels of oil. The tanker and its cargo of oil can be used as leverage over the international community. They can initiate an oil spill that would snarl shipping traffic in the Red Sea and cause massive environmental damage. The leveraging of asymmetric threats and calibrated escalation by Houthis are paying off.
The Houthis are engaged in a calibrated escalation and as of now, they hold the key to the escalatory ladder. The Houthis view their current strategy of calibrated escalation as successful and free of short-term consequences. Houthi attacks will continue. The longer they continue, the greater the threat that a miscalculation by the Houthis will force the US or Israel to intervene and set off an escalatory loop that may have grave consequences for the region and the global economy.
The author is an Indian Army Veteran
Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of Financial Express Online. Reproducing this content without permission is prohibited.
Since seizing the Yemeni capital of Sana’a in September 2014, the Houthis have systematically developed and refined their political and military capabilities. They have evolved from a highly capable guerrilla group to a near-state-level organisation and are now capable of projecting power within the region. The Houthis are financially self-sufficient, earning revenue through taxation, customs charges and service fees and smuggling operations. They’re seeking international recognition as a legitimate military and political force in Yemen The Houthis fight under the slogan “God is Great; death to America; death to Israel; damn the Jews; victory for Islam”.
The Houthis are part of Iran’s Axis of Resistance, the network of state and non-state actors including Hamas and Hezbollah that Iran has leveraged to spread its influence across the region and encircle its opponents like Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Houthis are also belligerent to the U.S. for the latter’s support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE for interfering in Yemen’s ongoing civil war. The Houthis overthrew an internationally recognised government, violated human rights, used child soldiers and imposed their version of “Fiver” Shi’a Islam on the Yemeni population, persecuting those who resisted. During the height of the civil war, the group also contributed to Yemen’s humanitarian disaster by blocking ports through which international aid was intended to flow and fired missiles and drones on Saudi and Emirati population centres with the sole intention of terrorising civilians.
Saudis and their UAE allies could not reverse the Houthis’ illegal takeover of the country. The Houthis targeted Saudi airports, cities and petrochemical facilities with missile and drone strikes. According to Rusi, they launched 340 missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia in March 2021 alone.
Today, there is a fragile truce in Yemen and the Saudis have no wish to derail that. The Saudi leadership is also acutely aware of how popular the Houthi stand is with some of their own population.
The popularity of the Houthis has eroded in recent years. They have been unable to deliver economic growth and remain the poorest country in the Middle East and North Africa. The Houthis are also brutally repressive, torturing and executing journalists, arresting and detaining peaceful protesters and restricting the rights of women and girls. Many Yemenis increasingly see the Houthis as driven by a desire to establish a totalitarian religious state that protects Zaidi elites’ power.
In September 2023, protests against the Houthis for failing to pay public-sector salaries were followed by arrests. However, the Houthi leadership recognised it had a problem. In September 2023, they announced they were preparing a “radical change” to their government to deal with corruption and economic problems. The Israel-Hamas war gave them a chance to gain legitimacy.
The attacks on Red Sea shipping and the high-profile hijacking of the Galaxy Leader provided domestic and international dividends for the Houthis. The Houthis have turned the Galaxy Leader, which is anchored off the Yemeni coast, into a popular tourist attraction. Domestic support for the Houthis has increased and support for the Houthis from Yemen’s well-armed northern tribes has been strengthened.
Adept at asymmetric warfare, the Houthis understand the importance of leverage. Their ability to strike targets in Saudi Arabia and the UAE has brought the Saudis to the negotiating table. The Houthis want to increase their leverage in the ongoing Saudi-Houthi talks, which have not ceased despite recent changes in regional dynamics. The Saudis would prefer not to re-engage in an open, direct and protracted military confrontation with the Houthis.
Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are working to upgrade, expand and network their air defences. In the case of a mass launch of drones and missiles in a swarm attack from Yemen, many targets would be struck. Neither the UAE nor Saudi Arabia can afford to have high-profile sites struck by the Houthis’ drones or missiles.
The Houthis have used their attacks in the Red Sea and on Israel to demonstrate their importance to Iran’s “axis of resistance,” Iran values the Houthis because they let Iran act more widely while maintaining plausible deniability. For instance, the Houthis claimed responsibility for a September 2019 drone attack on Saudi oil facilities of Aramco. It is widely believed that the attack could not have been possible without the active support of Iran.
The Houthis control Yemen, a tanker moored near the port of Hodeidah, which holds over a million barrels of oil. The tanker and its cargo of oil can be used as leverage over the international community. They can initiate an oil spill that would snarl shipping traffic in the Red Sea and cause massive environmental damage. The leveraging of asymmetric threats and calibrated escalation by Houthis are paying off.
The Houthis are engaged in a calibrated escalation and as of now, they hold the key to the escalatory ladder. The Houthis view their current strategy of calibrated escalation as successful and free of short-term consequences. Houthi attacks will continue. The longer they continue, the greater the threat that a miscalculation by the Houthis will force the US or Israel to intervene and set off an escalatory loop that may have grave consequences for the region and the global economy.
The author is an Indian Army Veteran
Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the official position or policy of Financial Express Online. Reproducing this content without permission is prohibited.
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