The Houthis, a Yemeni rebel group known for its attacks on shipping, have joined the Iran war just as it enters its fifth week.
Their involvement escalates a rapidly worsening conflict that has already placed global oil supplies in a chokehold amid the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and reports of an impending ground invasion by US troops.
Backed by Iran, the Houthis had stayed out of the conflict until they launched attacks on Israel on Saturday.
They carried out a second attack within 24 hours of the first on Sunday and vowed to continue fighting until US-Israeli “aggression” is ended on all fronts.
However, with a history of bombing maritime trade routes and disrupting shipping lanes, experts told The Independent that their entry into the fray will add further pressure on an already-stretched region with global effects.
We look at who the Houthis are below and what their impact could be on the Strait of Hormuz in particular.
The Yemeni rebel group was formed in the 1990s as a political-religious Shia movement orchestrating a series of guerrilla wars against Yemen’s national army.
They currently control significant parts of northwestern Yemen, including its capital Sana’a, after seizing it following the country’s 2014 civil war when they forced the government to step down.
A Saudi-led, western-backed coalition took over, which the Houthis have spent years fighting with the assistance of Iran, before a UN-brokered deal in 2022. A Saudi and UAE bombing campaign against Houthi targets was launched in 2015 and drew criticism over civilian deaths, leading to calls for the UK to cease arms exports to Saudi Arabia.
The war is estimated to have killed around 400,000 people, many who died through famine after Saudi Arabia’s restriction of ports through which Yemen imported 90 per cent of its food, which humanitarian groups considered a major driving factor of the crisis.
Often mistakenly considered a proxy group, the Houthis have their own political aims and agendas outside of those affiliated with Iran, which provides it with weapons, training and technical support.
The Houthis, along with Gaza’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, form part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” – a military alliance built over four decades to oppose Israeli and American power in the Middle East.
The Houthis are skilled at maritime warfare having disrupted shipping routes before, most recently during Israel’s war on Gaza in 2024.
They launched systematic attacks on commercial ships associated with Israel transiting through Bab el-Mandeb, a key gateway to the Suez Canal, in the Red Sea, forcing the vessels to be rerouted.
