Resistance movement against Saudi Arabia and Sunnis… With Iranian support, we have the upper hand in the civil war.
Yemeni rebel helicopter flying to seize a ship
(Hodeida[예멘] EPA = Yonhap News) A Yemeni Houthi rebel helicopter is flying over the cargo ship ‘Galaxy Leader’ sailing in the Red Sea on the 19th of last month (local time). Houthi rebels captured the ‘Galaxy Leader’ on this day after threatening to hijack an Israeli-operated ship, but it was reported that the ship was owned by the UK and operated by a Japanese shipping company. [후티 미디어 센터 제공] 2023.12.19
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Jin-hyung = Yemen’s Houthi rebels are attacking ships one after another in the Red Sea, putting key trade routes between Asia and Europe at risk of paralysis, shaking up global logistics and the economy.
Accordingly, with the establishment of a multinational fleet operation led by the United States to protect the Red Sea route, interest in the true nature of the Houthi rebels, who have been somewhat out of the spotlight of the international community, is growing.
According to foreign media such as the American current affairs magazine Time magazine, the British Economist, and Reuters on the 18th (local time), the Houthi rebels emerged in North Yemen, where the majority of the population is Zayd, a Shia sect.
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The Zayd sect is a minority sect that accounts for about 35% of Yemen’s population, and the majority sect in Yemen is Sunni.
As the Sunni fundamentalist Salaf sect (Salafism) expanded its influence in North Yemen in the 1980s with the support of the Sunni-led Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia, a resistance movement also emerged among the Zaydi sect.
The Believing Youth, a Zaydite group formed in 1992 under the leadership of Zaydist cleric Hussein al-Houthi, became the root of the Houthi rebels.
As support for Al Houthis and this group gradually grew in North Yemen, the Yemeni government’s repression also intensified.
In 2003, Al Houthis staged large-scale protests when the Yemeni government supported the US invasion of Iraq.
Al-Houthi’s forces, which opposed Saudi Arabia and leaned toward Iran, a fellow Shiite group, mentioned Iran and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah as models of resistance and raised the banner of being anti-American and anti-Israel in earnest.
Eventually, when government forces killed al-Houthi in 2004, his forces declared themselves the Houthi rebels, named after him.
Armed with weapons stolen from the black market or the Yemeni military, they rose up and entered into a full-scale civil war with the Yemeni government.
Afterwards, during the Arab Spring of 2011, Yemen’s dictator, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, was ousted due to popular resistance, and the Houthi rebels took an advantageous position in the civil war.
It was around this time that the Houthi rebels adopted ‘Ansar Allah’, meaning ‘Guardian of God’, as their official name.
The Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, took control of most of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, located in northwest Yemen, in 2014, and President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who received recognition from the international community, fled to Saudi Arabia.
Then, in 2015, at the request of President Hadi, the Saudi military intervened, and it escalated into an international war. Over the next few years, approximately 25,000 airstrikes led by the Saudi military resulted in the death of more than 19,000 civilians.
In the end, as the civil war in Yemen subsided with the ceasefire in April last year, the Houthi rebels focused on strengthening their control of the areas they had secured, including Sana’a.
[그래픽] What about Yemen’s Houthi rebels?
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Young-eun = 0eun@yna.co.kr
Twitter @yonhap_graphics Facebook tuney.kr/LeYN1
YEMEN HOUTHIS ISRAEL GAZA CONFLICT
On the 2nd (local time), Houthi rebels marched in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, holding Palestinian flags and shouting for revenge against Israel. 2023.12.19
[EPA 연합뉴스 자료사진. 재판매 및 DB 금지]
However, when the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed faction Hamas broke out last October, it intervened.
On October 31, the Houthis launched an attack on Israel with missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).
They then announced that they would attack ships related to Israel in the Red Sea, and are attacking and capturing ships from each country with missiles and drones one after another.
The Houthi rebels appear to have little capability to attack Israel directly, as they are known to have only a few missiles capable of directly striking Israel, which is located more than 1,600 km away.
However, with support from Iran, it is evaluated that it has grown into a military power sufficient to threaten the Red Sea, just offshore, with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones.
Stacey Philbrick Yadav, an American expert on Yemen, explained to the Times that public support for Palestine in Yemen is so strong that the Houthis can increase their popularity within the country by attacking Israeli-related ships.
In addition, as the Arab world is seething with anger against Israel, there are predictions that this attack could expand the influence that has been limited to the Yemeni region to the entire Arab world through this attack.
Israeli and American flags on ships captured in the Red Sea
(Hodeida[예멘] EPA = Yonhap News) On the 5th (local time) on the Red Sea coast near Al Salif Port, Yemen, people are looking around the deck of the Galaxy Leader and stepping on the American and Israeli flags placed on the floor. Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized the Galaxy Leader, owned by a British company whose shares are partially owned by an Israeli shipping conglomerate, immediately after threatening to hijack an Israeli ship on the 19th of last month. 2023.12.19 besthope@yna.co.kr
jhpark@yna.co.kr
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2023/12/19 12:12 Sent
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2023-12-19 03:12:03
