Who Are Yemen’s Houthi?

Why the U.S. is Fighting the Houthi, and a History of Yemen’s Wars

If you follow the news at all, you are aware that the Houthi forces in Yemen began launching attacks on Israel and on international shipping in the Red Sea in October, 2023 in support of Hamas. This was following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli counterattacks. Soonthereafter, Houthi forces and American naval ships in the Red Sea area began exchanging attacks on each other, a military conflict that escalated again as of March 15, 2025.

The Houthi temporarily halted attacks on Israel, Red Sea shipping, and U.S. naval ships, with the start of a truce between Israel and Hamas in November, 2024. In March, 2025, the Houthi resumed attacks in support of Hamas. The new Trump Administration retaliated beginning on March 15, 2025 against the Houthi with the start of a large and, as announced, long-term air campaign against the Houthi. In a statement, the Pentagon said that the Houthi had attacked U.S. warships 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since the start of the war 2023. President Trump also warned Iran, which supports the Houthi, that they may be next.

Who Are the Houthi?

Who are the Houthi? What is the recent history of Yemen, and how do the Houthi fit into that history? Let’s take a look at Yemen’s very complex and very violent history.

Yemen is a Muslim nation on the southeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula with a weak central government that long possessed many indicators of a nation on the verge of falling apart. Yemen is plagued with war between north and south, a separatist insurgency in the south, and an al-Qaida presence, along with a powerful Shiite rebel group supported by Iran. These Shiite fundamentalists are called the Houthis, and they have embroiled this impoverished nation in an international war against Israel, the United States, and a coalition of Western nations.

Yemen is one of the poorest nations in the world, with high unemployment, a low literacy rate, a history of corrupt governments, a well-armed population with a culture of stronger allegiance to tribe, clan, and family than to the nation, and a long history of civil conflict. Yemen also has been a proxy battlefield in international politics, from the Cold War to the Saudi-Iran conflict, and the Israel/U.S. conflicts with Iran.

Yemeni History: North vs. South

On May 22, 1990 the Republic of Yemen was established with the merger of the Yemen Arab Republic [Yemen (Sanaa), AKA North Yemen] and the Marxist People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [Yemen (Aden), AKA South Yemen]. With Yemen's history and politics, nothing is easy to comprehend or is necessarily logical.

The old North Yemen became fully independent at the end of World War One in November 1918 from the Ottoman Empire, and became a republic with the overthrow of the theocratic Imamate (religious monarchy) in 1962, which precipitated a long civil war and Egyptian and Saudi intervention. The Imamate was dominated by Yemen’s Shiite Zaidi sect, which is the group that forms the backbone of today’s Houthi movement.

The rest of Yemen, the southern part, was a British colonial outpost since the 1830s. South Yemen became independent from British rule on November 30, 1967 after a long anti-British leftist insurgency. The new South Yemeni nation became the only Marxist (i.e. Communist) nation in the Arab or Muslim world, and naturally became an ally of the old Communist Soviet Union. This put South Yemen at odds with the more tradition-minded North Yemen, but also made enemies of the pro-Western and conservative neighboring nations of Saudi Arabia and Oman. As with many other places in the world with a conservative/Marxist split, the two Yemens became one focus in the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. When North and South Yemen went to war against each other in 1972 and 1979, both conflicts turned into Cold War flashpoints.

In the late 1980s, the two Yemens discussed the possibility of peaceful unification, and in May of 1990, the two nations merged into one Republic of Yemen. Four years later, tensions between the conservative and more-religious North, which dominated the new nation, and the more progressive, less-religious South, erupted in a short but bloody civil war in 1994. South Yemen declared independence, but lost the war. In the years since that war, factions in South Yemen continued to agitate against the northern-dominated central government.

The movement for an independent South Yemen gained strength after 2007, when protests broke out over the forced early retirement of several army officers from the south. Fears of a renewed civil war began, with many Yemenis still remembering the bloody 1994 civil war. Violence continued in the south with armed rebels killing a police officer in late February, 2010, and security forces arresting 21 separatist leaders, which sparked large protests. Notably, some of these protests featured the flag of the old South Yemen.

The al-Qaida Connection in Yemen

Yemen has long been connected to the family of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist organization. The bin Laden family originated in Yemen prior to settling in Saudi Arabia and becoming wealthy in the construction business. Like Afghanistan and Somalia, other favorite bases for al-Qaida, Yemen's status as a nation with a fairly weak central government and the frequent conflicts inside Yemen's borders made the poor Arabian nation a good location for al-Qaida to hide, recruit, and plan further attacks on the West and on others. In October of 2000, al-Qaida operatives rammed a small boat into the side of an American warship, the USS Cole, blasting a hole in the side of the ship and killing 17 American sailors. A year later, in October, 2002, al-Qaida attacked a French oil tanker, killing one, and causing the spillage of 100,000 gallons of oil. In September 2008, al-Qaida attacked the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a in a car bomb attack followed by a gun battle with Embassy guards.

At this point, the Yemeni government worked with the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. in combating the al-Qaida presence in Yemen. In 2002, an American Predator drone controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency destroyed a vehicle in Yemen containing several al-Qaida operatives. Airstrikes against al-Qaida began in Yemen in 2009, and continued as the U.S. worked to degrade al-Qaida in Yemen.

The Houthi

In 2004, in the far northeast of North Yemen, the significant (34%) Shiite (members of the Shia Muslim sect are known as Shiites) minority began a rebellion, which drew in Saudi Arabia against the rebels in November of 2009. These Shiite rebels are popularly known as the Houthi.

Most Yemenis (65%) are of the Sunni branch of Islam. A large religious minority belonging to the Shi'a (Shiite branch of Islam lives in the north, and is the main component of the so-called al-Houthi rebellion that originated in the north Yemen region of Sa'dah. The rebellion was begun in 2004 by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, head of the Shiite Zaidi sect, and the rebels take their name from their now-dead leader. The government embarked on a large military offensive called "Operation Scorched Earth" in August of 2009.

In November of 2009, the Houthi insurgency took on an alarming new dimension, as Saudi Arabia openly intervened to aid the Yemeni government with air strikes and artillery barrages on the Shiite Houthi rebels. Analysts saw the Saudi participation partly as a pre-emptive strike to prevent the war from actually spreading into Saudi territory, but also as a move against Iran, which aids the rebels. Saudi Arabia and Iran are engaged in a long-running proxy conflict in the Middle East. Also, the fact that the U.S. is a major supporter of the old Yemen government also helps explain the Iranian connection, as the U.S. and Iran have been enemies since the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s and the U.S.-Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979 and 1980.

In 2015, the Houthi-Saudi conflict changed from a border war to a major coalition effort to destroy the Houthi. Saudi Arabia led an international coalition (including the UAE, Sudan, Bahrain, Qatar, Morocco, and Jordan) supported by British and American logistics, weapons, intelligence-gathering and a naval blockade in support of the deposed Yemen government against the Houthi.

Meanwhile from the Obama Administration through the Biden and Trump administrations, the U.S. has conducted airstrikes, drone strikes, commando raids, and naval attacks on al-Qaida, ISIS, and Houthi targets in Yemen.

American military action against the Houthi accelerated after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. Between January 2024 and December 2025, U.S. and British forces launched at least 260 attacks on the Houthi in order to get them to stop attacks on shipping and on Israel. The initial attacks ordered by President Trump have, as of this writing, killed over 50 people in Houthi-dominated northern Yemen, with more attacks likely to come. The U.S. government specifically warned Iran that they may be next if Iranian support for the Houthi attacks continue.

The Biden Administration’s military fight with the Houthi (as well as Israel’s bombing of Houthi forces) certainly did not stop the Houthi attacks on shipping, Israel, or the U.S. Navy. President Trump announced that he intends a more aggressive campaign against the Houthi. We shall see what happens. But remember, the Houthi, like Hamas, is a fundamentalist Islamist movement. In other words, religious fanatics. They see the Jews, Christians, and any Arabs or Muslims who work with the West or don’t believe as they do, to be enemies that they are to kill. These types of fanatics are not easily swayed by the occasional bombing campaign. We shall see what happens…

The List of Wars

Because I like lists, and I especially like lists related to history, and more specifically, I enjoy making lists related to military history; for your edification and for my weird enjoyment, here is a list of the wars mentioned in this article:

Yemen War (1962)-Egypt supports Republican rebels vs Saudi-supported religious monarchy. Rebels win.

First Yemenite War (1972)-U.S. backed North Yemen vs. Soviet-backed South Yemen

Second Yemenite War (1979)-U.S. backed North Yemen vs. Soviet-backed South Yemen

Yemen Civil War (1994)-Recent union of North and South Yemen falls apart, as the South tries to secede. The south loses, and has to stay in a unified Yemen.

Al-Qaida Insurgency in Yemen (1998–Present)-Al-Qaida sets up shop in Yemen, and the government takes umbrage at this. The U.S. provides active support with occasional attacks on al-Qaida in Yemen. Part of America’s “Global War on Terror,” or whatever we are calling it now. Includes al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole (2000) in a Yemeni port. Ongoing.

Houthi Insurgency (2004–2014)-Rebellion by Shiite Houthi in North Yemen. Morphed into full civil war when the Houthi seized control of the Yemen capital city of Sanaa in 2014. The UN-recognized Yemen government still controls most of southern and eastern Yemen. Saudi Arabia intervened militarily to fight the Shiite Houthi and support the existing government.

South Yemen Insurgency (2009-Present)-Southern secessionist movement vs the “old” Yemen government, which is now based in Aden. As the Houthi war escalated, this insurgency became more of a background movement, with the last major combat taking place in Aden in 2018. Technically still ongoing.

Yemeni Civil War (2014–present)-Houthi “government” based in Sanaa vs the “old” government that has now relocated to the southern port city of Aden. The Saudi coalition is heavily involved in this phase of the war. Also U.S. and British air and naval forces engaged the Houthi since January, 2024.

Israel-Houthi Conflict (Oct. 19, 2023-Ongoing)-The Houthi rebel army began launching attacks toward Israel on Oct. 19, 2023. On Oct. 31, the Houthi officially declared their attacks on Israel were a “third front” in the Hamas-Israel War. Israel has counterattacked several times, launching powerful airstrikes in Yemen. Part of Hamas-Israel War; Arab-Israeli Wars, and Israel-Iran Conflict.

U.S.-Houthi Conflict/Iran Proxy War (Oct. 19, 2023-Ongoing)-Iranian proxy in Yemen, the Houthi rebel army, began launching attacks against Israel and against Red Sea shipping in support of Hamas. U.S., UK, and other naval forces began intercepting these attacks. On January 11, 2024 U.S. and UK air and naval forces began a campaign hitting Houthi targets in western Yemen. In March, 2025, the U.S. launched the start of what is billed as an extended series of attacks on the Houthi.