Who Are the Houthis and Why Do They Fight?
By Squirrels·
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The Houthis are a Yemeni armed movement that has controlled large parts of Yemen since 2014. Backed by Iran, they have launched hundreds of missile and drone strikes against Saudi Arabia and, since late 2023, against commercial shipping in the Red Sea — making them one of the most consequential non-state armed actors in the Middle East.
Who Are the Houthis?
The Houthi movement — formally known as Ansar Allah (Supporters of God) — emerged in the 1990s in Saada, a mountainous governorate in northwestern Yemen. The movement was founded by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, a Zaydi Shia cleric and politician, in the early 2000s as a religious revivalist movement that gradually turned into an armed insurgency.
Zaydis are a branch of Shia Islam distinct from the Twelver Shia practiced in Iran, but the two share enough theological and political common ground that Iran has become the Houthis' primary external patron. Zaydis constitute roughly 35% of Yemen's population and were historically concentrated in the northern highlands.
After Hussein al-Houthi was killed by Yemeni government forces in September 2004, his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi took command. He remains the movement's leader as of 2026.
How Did the Houthis Rise to National Power?
The Houthis fought six rounds of war against Yemen's central government between 2004 and 2010. Each round ended in ceasefire without resolution. The movement survived, grew, and accumulated military experience.
The pivotal moment came in 2014–2015. Exploiting the political vacuum created by the Arab Spring uprisings and the weakened government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Houthi forces swept south from Saada.
September 2014: Houthis seized the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, without significant resistance.
January 2015: They placed President Hadi under house arrest and dissolved parliament.
February 2015: Hadi escaped to Aden and then Saudi Arabia; the Houthis declared a new governing body.
This sequence triggered the intervention that would define the next decade of Middle Eastern conflict.
Why Did Saudi Arabia Intervene — and What Followed?
Saudi Arabia views a Houthi-controlled Yemen on its southern border as an existential threat for three reasons:
Strategic geography: Yemen shares a 1,800-kilometre border with Saudi Arabia. A hostile government in Sanaa threatens Saudi border provinces, including Jizan, Najran, and Asir.
Iranian proxy logic: Riyadh characterised the Houthi takeover as an Iranian power projection into the Arabian Peninsula — part of Tehran's broader regional strategy sometimes described as the "Axis of Resistance."
Oil infrastructure vulnerability: Saudi Arabia's oil-producing Eastern Province and the Ras Tanura terminal — which handles a significant portion of global crude exports — are within range of Yemeni missile systems.
In March 2015, Saudi Arabia assembled a coalition of Arab states and launched Operation Decisive Storm, an air campaign aimed at restoring the Hadi government. The United States provided intelligence, logistics, and aerial refuelling support.
The campaign did not achieve its stated objective. As of 2026, the war has lasted over eleven years. It has produced what the United Nations describes as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with estimates of over 150,000 conflict-related deaths (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) and millions displaced.
Why Are the Houthis Attacking Saudi Arabia?
The Houthi attacks on Saudi territory are driven by a combination of military strategy, ideology, and geopolitical alignment.
Military Strategy: Asymmetric Pressure
The Houthis cannot match Saudi Arabia's conventional military power. Instead, they have developed an asymmetric doctrine — using low-cost drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles to impose costs on a far wealthier adversary.
2019 Aramco attack: In September 2019, a coordinated strike on Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq processing facility and Khurais oil field temporarily knocked out approximately 5% of global oil supply. The attack was claimed by the Houthis, though US officials attributed it primarily to Iran. It demonstrated that Yemen-based weapons could reach deep into Saudi territory.
Ongoing missile and drone campaigns: Between 2015 and 2024, the Houthis fired over 400 ballistic missiles and thousands of drones at Saudi cities and infrastructure, according to estimates from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) and the Saudi-led coalition.
Saudi civilian and military targets: Strikes have hit Riyadh, Jazan, Najran, and the King Khalid International Airport in the capital.
Ideological Framing
The Houthi movement's official slogan — "God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam" — was adopted after 2003 in response to the US invasion of Iraq and reflects the movement's pan-Islamist and anti-Western ideological orientation.
The Houthis frame their conflict with Saudi Arabia not merely as a territorial dispute but as resistance against what they characterise as a Saudi-American-Israeli alliance imposing a siege on the Yemeni people.
Iranian Backing: Weapons, Training, and Intelligence
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has provided the Houthis with:
Ballistic missile technology, enabling strikes at ranges exceeding 1,000 kilometres
Drone technology, including the Shahed-136 loitering munition (the same design used by Russia in Ukraine)
Anti-ship missile systems, used in the Red Sea campaign beginning in 2023
Training and tactical advisers, according to US intelligence assessments
Iran denies direct military involvement, characterising its relationship with the Houthis as political support for a legitimate resistance movement.
The Red Sea Escalation: 2023–2026
Beginning in November 2023, following the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza conflict, the Houthis opened a new front: commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis announced they would target vessels with links to Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza was reached. In practice, their targeting expanded to include ships with tenuous or disputed Israeli connections, as well as vessels from nations the Houthis classify as adversaries.
The consequences for global trade have been significant:
The Red Sea corridor handles approximately 12–15% of global trade (UNCTAD estimates), including a large share of Asia-Europe container traffic.
Shipping rates surged as major carriers — Maersk, MSC, CMA CGM — rerouted vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, adding 10–14 days to transit times.
The United States assembled Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational naval coalition, to escort vessels and intercept Houthi projectiles.
US and UK forces conducted strikes on Houthi military infrastructure inside Yemen beginning in January 2024.
As of mid-2026, the Houthi Red Sea campaign continues intermittently, though its operational tempo has fluctuated with broader ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.
What Does the Houthi Conflict Mean for India?
India has direct stakes in the Houthi conflict for three reasons:
1. Trade exposure: India's exports to Europe and imports of European goods pass through the Red Sea corridor. Rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope adds shipping costs and time, with downstream effects on Indian export competitiveness.
2. Energy security: India imports approximately 85% of its crude oil. Any sustained disruption to Gulf oil production — as demonstrated by the 2019 Aramco attack — affects Indian import prices.
3. Diaspora: Approximately 9 million Indian nationals live in Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait. Escalation that destabilises the Gulf region has direct humanitarian implications for this population.
India has maintained diplomatic relationships with both Saudi Arabia and Iran, reflecting its established policy of strategic autonomy. New Delhi has not formally aligned with either the Saudi-led coalition or the Houthi-Iran axis.
What Are the Prospects for Resolution?
A UN-brokered truce between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis held from April 2022 to October 2022 and produced the most significant reduction in violence since 2015. Subsequent Saudi-Houthi negotiations, with Chinese diplomatic facilitation, produced a Saudi-Iran normalisation agreement in March 2023 — which reduced the intensity of the Houthi-Saudi front.
However, the Gaza conflict has complicated any durable settlement. The Houthis have explicitly linked their Red Sea campaign to developments in Gaza, making resolution dependent on a conflict in which they are not a primary party.
The structural conditions that sustain the Houthi movement — Iranian patronage, Yemeni state weakness, unresolved economic grievances in northern Yemen — remain largely unchanged.
FAQ
Who founded the Houthi movement?
The Houthi movement was founded by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi in Saada, Yemen in the early 2000s. After his death in 2004, his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi assumed leadership and continues to lead the movement.
Are the Houthis Shia Muslims?
Yes. The Houthis follow Zaydi Shia Islam, a branch distinct from the Twelver Shia tradition dominant in Iran. Despite theological differences, Iran has emerged as the Houthis' primary military patron due to shared geopolitical interests.
Why are the Houthis attacking ships in the Red Sea?
Beginning in November 2023, the Houthis announced they would target commercial vessels linked to Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Their targeting subsequently expanded. The campaign has disrupted approximately 12–15% of global trade that passes through the Red Sea corridor.
What weapons do the Houthis use?
The Houthis use Iranian-supplied ballistic missiles with ranges exceeding 1,000 kilometres, loitering munitions (drones), cruise missiles, and anti-ship missiles. The 2019 strike on Saudi Aramco infrastructure demonstrated the operational reach of these systems.
Has there been any peace process?
A UN-brokered truce in 2022 produced the most significant reduction in violence since 2015. Saudi-Iran normalisation in March 2023, facilitated by China, reduced tensions on the Saudi-Houthi front. However, the Gaza conflict has complicated any comprehensive settlement as of 2026.
What is Iran's role in supporting the Houthis?
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has provided the Houthis with missile technology, drone systems, anti-ship weapons, and military training, according to US intelligence assessments. Iran characterises this as political support for a resistance movement rather than direct military intervention.
Conclusion
The Houthi conflict is not a peripheral regional dispute — it is a node in the broader contest between Saudi Arabia and Iran for influence across the Middle East, with consequences that extend from global shipping lanes to India's energy import costs.
The movement that began as a religious revivalist group in Yemen's northern highlands has, over two decades, become one of the most capable non-state armed actors in the world — capable of striking oil infrastructure hundreds of kilometres away and disrupting a corridor that carries a significant fraction of global trade.
Understanding who the Houthis are, what animates them, and what sustains them is a prerequisite for understanding the structure of Middle Eastern geopolitics in 2026. The data and the record suggest that absent a resolution to the underlying political economy of Yemen and the broader Saudi-Iran rivalry, the Houthi conflict will remain a chronic feature of the regional landscape.
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