Who are the Houthis?published at 15:39 Greenwich Mean Time
The Houthis are an armed political and religious group that formed in the 1990s and champions Yemen’s Shia Muslim minority, the Zaidis.
They declare themselves to be
part of the Iranian-led “axis of resistance” against
Israel, the US and the wider West – along with armed groups such as Hamas and
Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
In the early 2000s, the Houthis fought a series of rebellions
against Yemen’s authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
During the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, President
Saleh was forced to give power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, but his
government had many problems.
The Houthis seized control of the northern province of Saada and the capital, Sanaa, after forming an unlikely alliance
with Saleh and security forces still loyal to him.
But neighbouring Saudi Arabia feared the Houthis would take over
Yemen and make it a satellite of Iran.
The Saudis formed a coalition of Arab countries that intervened in the
war. But years of air strikes and ground fighting did not dislodge the
Houthis.
