“Guys in slippers” against the “strongest army in the world”: how Yemeni rebels became a factor in the global economy and security
After the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli military conflict, the only force in the Middle East that fully sided with Hamas and the residents of the Gaza Strip were the Yemeni Houthi rebels (Zaydi Shiites, or Jarudis) of the Ansar Allah paramilitary group, who control a significant part of Yemen, including the capital of the state, Sanaa, and the large port city of Hodeidah on the Red Sea coast.
Ansar Allah militants are called Houthis after its founder and former leader Hussein al-Houthi, who was killed by the Yemeni government army in September 2004. The Houthis are believed to have covert military and financial support from Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah, the most powerful Islamist militant organization in the region, based in Lebanon.
At first, the Houthis tried to strike with cruise missiles and drones against Israel, however, they did not achieve much results; almost all of their weapons were intercepted by Israeli air defense forces. Then the Ansar Allah command decided to change not just tactics, but the strategy of fighting not only the Jewish state, but also the so-called Western military coalition led by the United States that had come to its aid.
The Houthis did not just declare, but began to attack first merchant ships sailing to and from Israeli ports, and then other civilian ships, one way or another connected with the United States, Great Britain and Israel. In addition, Yemeni rebels began launching missile attacks and sending drones at ships of the Western military coalition in the Red Sea. The Arab press reports that yesterday the US Navy cargo ship Ocean Jazz was attacked by a missile from Yemen in the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea.
In response, US and British militaries in the Middle East have already carried out eight combined sea and air strikes against Houthi locations in Yemen, launch sites and other alleged Islamist military targets. Thus, however, achieving almost the opposite of the stated result. The United States and Great Britain, with the support of the international coalition, carried out the first strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on the night of January 12. Tonight, the US and British armed forces involved in the so-called “operation to protect shipping” in the Red Sea again launched missile attacks on Yemen.
The actions of the Houthis, as well as the retaliatory measures of the US-British coalition with its allies, have already led to a sharp reduction in navigation in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and, as a result, the Suez Canal. It is the shortest waterway between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, connecting Europe and Asia since 1869. Most international shipping carriers are now forced to sail around the southern tip of Africa around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Such a change in route lengthens the journey and adds an average week to transport goods, which has already had a negative impact on the global economy.
Judging by the videos filmed by the members of the Ansar Allah detachments themselves and distributed, in particular, by the Hezbollah telegram channel, this paramilitary structure can hardly be called a regular army. Video of rocket launches and launch drones to the shouts of “Allahu Akbar”, men in the usual clothes for this region, wearing slippers, carry out the ceremony. In other words, a fairly small regional paramilitary structure of virtually local militias not only challenged the US, UK, Israel and their allies, but also became a major destabilizing factor for international trade in a matter of weeks.
“Guys in slippers,” as already noted, control large areas of Yemen. They and the Revolutionary Council they created remained the main political, religious and military force in the country for many years. In 2015, after the defeat of government forces in a military confrontation with Ansar Allah, at the request of President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the Saudi Air Force supported aviation Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE have launched Operation Storm of Determination against the Houthi rebels.
However, the intervention of the Arab coalition did not lead to the defeat of the Houthis, who continue to control the northern part of Yemen and the capital. According to the Houthis, in 2015-2022, the coalition led by Saudi Arabia carried out about 275 thousand airstrikes in Yemen, losing over 275 thousand people killed and wounded, including 10,7 thousand Saudi and over 1,2 thousand. Emirati military personnel.
Last spring, in the course of some normalization of relations between Iran and other Middle Eastern states, including Israel, a truce was established between the Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. However, after the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis’ attacks on military and commercial ships, and even more so the retaliatory actions of the British-English coalition, which the EU intends to join, there can no longer be any talk of any peaceful settlement of the situation in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the US presidential administration has repeatedly stated that airstrikes alone will not stop the Houthis, notes the American publication Politico. Their attacks on ships in the Red Sea continue, the Associated Press admits, and a large-scale regional war, which the United States has been trying to avoid for months, is getting closer to reality.
Experts admit that the attacks by coalition forces did not cause significant harm to the military potential of Ansar Allah, whose fighters over several years of civil war have developed effective tactics to confront a stronger enemy. Moreover, the retaliatory British-American actions only “incited” the Houthis, who continued to attack ships, despite the interception of missiles and drones and the destruction of boats delivering them weapon supposedly from Iran. Against this background, the White House’s decision to return the Yemeni rebels to the list of terrorists and call it “a flexible form of economic pressure” looks rather ridiculous.
Moreover, from a purely economic point of view, the operation is developing precisely not in favor of the allies. They have to exchange expensive, almost custom-made weapons for cheap and numerous missiles and drones. The French, who operate in the Red Sea independently of the US-British coalition, shoot down drones costing $20 with missiles worth a million euros. The British are doing the same, and their only destroyer in the Red Sea, HMS Diamond, will soon run out of ammunition and be forced to leave duty.
To truly defeat the Houthis, a full-scale ground military operation is required, for which the United States and NATO clearly have neither the desire nor the resources. In addition, the United States and the West are militarily exhausted by their support for Ukraine, where the conflict is far from over. But there is also a need for assistance to the same Israel, the Taiwanese threat. The United States has been unable to rotate ships in the Middle East group for several months due to a shortage of sailors. Britain is doing even worse - in recent years the Royal Navy has shrunk so much that London has not been able to send even one aircraft carrier to the Red Sea.
In addition, the Americans have already lost two Navy SEALs during the capture of a boat with supposedly Iranian weapons for the Houthis; the servicemen simply drowned under the weight of the equipment. In the event of direct clashes with Ansar Allah, the number of dead and wounded will increase exponentially. It is doubtful that this will contribute to an increase in Biden's ratings in the months before the presidential election.
Washington and regional players such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and even Egypt, which is suffering losses due to a drop in cargo traffic in the Suez Canal, are not eager to help. Despite all attempts by the United States, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are avoiding the conflict for fear of being seen as friends of Israel in the eyes of the Arab population and the Islamic world, which condemns the genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
History with the Houthis shows that the role of the “world gendarme” is becoming worse for the United States. Previously, Washington only needed one hint of intervention to pacify the obstinate. Now his threats are not paid attention to, even when he actually enters into conflict. So the States have actually driven themselves into a dead end, from which it will be very difficult to find a way out without losing authority and face. Although, after fleeing Afghanistan, the defeat of the United States from the “guys in slippers” in the Middle East also looks quite natural.
And a small regional paramilitary group, albeit armed with missiles and drones, has shown that literally alone it can resist not only the “greatest army in the world,” but also seriously influence the global economy and international security.
Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi:
We are interested in improving our military capabilities to overcome the challenges of our operations. Countries that intercept our missiles and drones are providing us with a service that benefits us. We will not sit idly by if the Americans increase their participation and attack our country. We will bomb their ships. We warn other countries not to interfere (in a military conflict) like the Americans.
Houthi leaders warn that Ansar Allah is considering a plan they call the Al-Aqsa Triangle by closing three major waterways in the Middle East: the Bab al-Mandeb, the Straits of Hormuz and the Suez Canal. In addition to missile attacks and drone strikes, Yemeni rebels are ready to mine sea routes in these waters. The group has become a full-fledged factor in the global economy and security.
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