Drone and missile attacks by Houthi rebels on cargo ships in the Red Sea have prompted forces led by the United States and Britain to launch airstrikes against targets in the region. But who is the Iranian-backed rebel group that controls most of Yemen?

On Thursday night, the United States and Britain launched air and naval strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen in response to strikes on shipping in the Red Sea, with Reuters saying the strikes represent a dramatic escalation in the war between Israel and Hamas. in the Gaza Strip.

• LIVE The threat of escalation in the Middle East: the USA and Great Britain launched a wave of strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen / Russia convened an emergency meeting of the Security Council / Biden: We will not tolerate attacks on our forces

US President Joe Biden announced that the US and British military, with the support of Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, had successfully struck Houthi targets. The capital Sana’a and Hudaydah, a Houthi stronghold in the Red Sea port, were also struck. Houthi targets in Yemen included logistics centers, air defense systems and weapons depots.

Why did the Houthis attack ships in the Red Sea?

The attacks were carried out after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, the BBC reports.

The Houthis declared their support for Hamas and announced that they would attack any ship bound for Israel. However, it is not clear whether all of the attacked ships were actually bound for Israel.

In November, the Houthis seized what they claimed was an Israeli cargo ship. Since then, they have attacked several commercial vessels using drones and ballistic missiles.

Houthi attacks in the Red Sea increased by 500% from November to December. The threat has become so great that major shipping companies have stopped sailing in the region, and insurance costs have increased tenfold since the beginning of December, writes the BBC. Major shipping companies, including Mediterranean Shipping Company, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and oil major BP, have announced they are rerouting their Red Sea routes.

There are fears that fuel prices will rise and supply chains will be damaged. This is because almost 15% of the world’s maritime trade passes through the Red Sea, which is connected to the Mediterranean Sea by the Suez Canal and is the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

Washington has accused Iran of “deep involvement” in planning operations against merchant shipping in the Red Sea.

Yahya Sari, a spokesman for the group, said in a televised message that the Houthis launched a “large number” of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel on October 31 and that more such attacks would follow to “help the Palestinians achieve victory.” “

Sari said that Israel is responsible for the instability in the Middle East and that the “circle of conflict” in the region is widening due to the “constant crimes” of the Israeli state.

He threatened that the Houthi rebels would continue to attack until “the Israeli aggression stops.” The battle cry used by the Houthis is “Death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews and victory to Islam.”

Who are the Khusa rebels?

In the late 1990s, the Houthi family in northern Yemen founded a religious movement for the “revival” of the Shia sect “Zayda”. His followers, called Zaydis, live mainly in Yemen, where they make up about 45% of the total population. The Zaydis recognize only the first five Imams, up to Imam Zayd ibn Ali, who died in 740 AD in central Iraq.

The Zaydis once ruled Yemen, but over the years their center of power in the north of the country has become marginalized, facing serious economic problems.

As friction grew between the new Houthi movement and the government in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, the two sides ended up fighting a series of guerrilla wars and a brief border conflict with Saudi Arabia, the main Sunni power in the region.

The Houthi rebels managed to oust the Yemeni government from the country’s capital

Tensions escalated into civil war in 2014, when the capital Sana’a was seized by Houthi rebels. Concerned about growing Shiite influence on its border, Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015 at the head of a Western-backed coalition to prop up the Riyadh-backed Yemeni government.

However, the Houthi rebels have managed to take control of most of northern Yemen, as well as some major cities, while the government, backed by an international coalition, has established its headquarters in Aden, the largest city and port in the south.

In November 2021, the UN estimated that more than 377,000 civilians had been killed in Yemen’s civil war, which has caused several episodes of famine.

But the country has enjoyed more than a year of relative calm after the UN managed to broker a fragile ceasefire. Saudi Arabia is also negotiating with the Houthi rebels to exit the war.

The Houthi rebels are part of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” backed by Iran, the largest Shiite state in the Middle East. Like Iran, they expressed their support for the Palestinians in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, which shocked the international community.

During Yemen’s civil war, rebels have demonstrated that they can successfully use drones and missiles to attack oil facilities and infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s government accuses Iran of arming, training and funding the rebels. However, they deny this, saying that the weapons they use are developed independently. In the case of long-range cruise missiles, such statements border on the ridiculous.