The Houthis (officially Ansar Allah, or “Supporters of God”) are a Zaydi Shia Islamist political and military movement based in northern Yemen.
They emerged in the 1990s in Yemen’s Saada region as a religious revivalist group for the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam (a minority branch distinct from Iran’s Twelver Shiism). The movement was founded by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi; after his death in 2004, leadership passed to his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, who remains the secretive supreme leader. The group’s well-known slogan is “God is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.” Its ideology blends Zaydi identity, anti-Saudi and anti-Western sentiment, and influence from Iran’s 1979 revolution. The Houthis fought several wars against the Yemeni government in the 2000s. After the 2011 Arab Spring weakened the state, they seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 and drove the internationally recognized government south.
This triggered a Saudi-led military intervention in 2015 that led to a prolonged civil war and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. A UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely froze major fighting, but the Houthis have controlled most of northwest Yemen and a large share of the population (often estimated at 60–80%) ever since. They form part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” alongside groups such as Hezbollah. Iran has supplied weapons, training, and technology that significantly expanded Houthi missile and drone capabilities, though the Houthis insist they are an independent Yemeni movement rather than a pure proxy.
They have repeatedly attacked Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and since late 2023 they have targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea—initially claiming solidarity with Palestinians—disrupting global trade. In 2025–2026 they escalated further, seizing key Red Sea coastal areas and islands near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and striking Saudi targets, including airports. In short, the Houthis are a resilient, locally rooted Yemeni force that has evolved from a mountain militia into a de facto governing authority with advanced strike capabilities and a regional role as an Iranian-aligned actor.
