Al-MUKALLA, YEMEN: In September 2004, Yemen’s largest state-run newspaper, Al-Thawara, published a front-page story declaring that the nation’s army had killed Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi, leader of the newly established Houthi movement, in the northwestern province of Saada, strangling his revolt at birth.
It reported that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had thanked his military and security forces for “completely” defeating the Houthi revolt only months after it began.
More than two decades later it is clear that both the newspaper and Saleh spoke too soon. The Houthis now have control of central and heavily populated northern areas that are home to 70 percent of Yemen’s people.
The Houthis have evolved from a tiny group confined to a range of steep mountains in Saada to a force fighting not only fellow Yemenis and neighboring nations but even the US, with weaponry capable of striking targets as distant as Israel.
A decade before his death, Al-Houthi and his father, along with other Zaidi religious figures, had established Al-Haq, the Party of Truth. In the mid-1990s, Al-Houthi represented the party in the Yemeni parliament. He had also joined the Believing Youth Forum, another Zaidi religious advocacy group, in the early 1990s.
He subsequently abandoned both organizations and dropped out of higher education in Sudan because of his beliefs, which placed him at odds with many fellow Yemenis, including his co-religionists.
How we wrote it
Arab News’ front page covered the 2004 killing of Houthi leader Hussein Badruddin, seen as the group’s end at the time.
In 2002, Al-Houthi devised his movement’s slogan — “God is great! Death to America, death to Israel! Curse the Jews! Victory to Islam!” — and urged his followers to express it in Saada’s mosques and elsewhere in the country, angering the Yemeni authorities.
President Saleh accused Hussein of attempting to “turn back the clock” and restore the imams who had dominated northern Yemen for generations, and of killing troops, harassing people and robbing public funds.
When the Yemeni army killed Al-Houthi in 2004, he was succeeded by his brother, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, who carried on where his sibling had left off. The conflict with the Yemeni government in Saada continued, on and off, until 2010, leaving much of the province in ruins, hundreds of people dead and many more displaced.
In 2011 the Houthis took advantage of the turmoil in Sanaa, the capital, that followed the Arab Spring-inspired demonstrations against Saleh’s regime, to take full control of Saada province.
Despite a declared commitment to the peaceful pursuit of their goals during their participation in anti-Saleh protests and the UN-brokered National Dialogue Conference that brought together major shareholders in Sanaa to agree a road map for a post-Saleh Yemen, the reach of the Houthis expanded from their Saada heartland.
They launched incursions into Amran, Hajjah and Al-Jawf governorates, attacking public facilities and military bases, and looting weapons to boost their arsenal.
Key Dates
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1
President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s government begins arresting hundreds of Houthi members and issues a bounty for Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi’s arrest.
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2
After months of fighting, Yemeni security forces report Al-Houthi has been killed.
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3
Fighting between the Houthis, now led by Hussein’s brother, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, and government forces surges, leaving hundreds dead. Fighting ceases after sides reach an agreement.
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4
Demonstrations calling for an end to Saleh’s 33-year rule begin. Protests spread despite his promise not to seek reelection.
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5
Saleh hands power to his deputy, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, after a year of protests.
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6
Houthis take control of most of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. The following month, they seize the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.
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7
After being placed under house arrest by the Houthis, Hadi resigns as president.
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8
Hadi flees the presidential palace in Sanaa and escapes to Aden, where he rescinds his resignation, declares himself the legitimate president, and describes the Houthi takeover as a “coup.”
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9
After repeated pleas from Hadi, Saudi-led coalition forces initiate Operation Decisive Storm in support of the ousted president.
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10
Saleh, the former president, formally announces an alliance with Houthi fighters for the first time. It falls apart 2 years later and he is assassinated by Houthi fighters.
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11
A 2-month, UN-brokered ceasefire agreement between the warring parties lapses.
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12
Houthis hijack Israel-linked cargo ship and hold 25 crew members hostage, marking the beginning of attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.
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13
Israel strikes Hodeidah’s port in response to drone attack on Tel Aviv, the first in a series of attacks that continues throughout the year.
In February 2012, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi succeeded Saleh as president. On Sept. 21, 2014, the Houthis seized the capital, thwarting the transitional process and ushering in another cycle of bloodshed in the impoverished country that would result in the killing of thousands of Yemenis and the displacement of millions.
The ousted former president, Saleh, whose forces had killed the founder of the Houthis a decade previously, now sided with the group, using his continuing influence over the country’s military and security apparatus to facilitate a Houthi military expansion nationwide. He would pay a heavy price for breaking bread with the group.
Responding to Hadi’s pleas as the Houthis marched toward his new stronghold in the port city of Aden in March 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition launched Operation Decisive Storm in Yemen, tipping the balance of the war in Hadi’s favor and helping to contain Houthi military advances.
In December 2017, the uneasy alliance between the Houthis and Saleh fell apart and the former president was assassinated by the group’s fighters.
As the Arab coalition tightened its grip on Houthi weaponry and finances, Iran smuggled advanced drones and missiles to the group, providing the Houthis with the capacity to strike directly against and the UAE.
Despite a significant reduction in hostilities across the country under a UN-brokered truce, which came into effect in April 2022, Iran and its proxies in the region continued to smuggle weapons and military experts to the Houthis, who continued to launch deadly attacks on government-controlled areas, recruit fighters and conduct military exercises.
Newly recruited Houthi fighters in 2017 chant slogans as they ride a military vehicle in Sanaa to mobilize more fighters to battlefronts to fight pro-government forces in several Yemeni cities. AFP
In November 2023, the Houthis began to attack international shipping in the Red Sea using drones and missiles, ostensibly in support of the Palestinian people under attack by Israel in Gaza.
Houthi attacks on shipping lanes and against Israel prompted retaliatory strikes from the US, the UK and Israel, drawing the nation into an expanded conflict that exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis and pushed Yemen even further from peace.
The Houthis continue to occupy heavily populated areas, including vital locations in northern Yemen such as Sanaa, as well as a vast swath of territory on the western Red Sea coast in Hodeidah province.
The internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council, led by Rashed Al-Alimi, controls the southern city of Aden, which was declared the country’s interim capital after the Houthis took over Sanaa, as well as southern and eastern provinces. It continues to compete with the Houthis for control of Hodeidah, Marib and Hajjah.
The council, established in 2022, consists of eight members who represent key political, tribal and geographical constituencies in the nation.
With the cessation of hostilities in Gaza under the truce between Hamas and Israel, Yemenis hope that UN-brokered peace talks will soon restart and bring an end to more than a decade of bloodshed and humanitarian disaster in their country.
- Saeed Al-Batati is a Yemeni journalist based in the southern port city of Al-Mukalla who covers Yemen for Arab News.
