U.S. Launches Another Strike on Houthis; Houthi Ideology Unlikely to Allow De-Escalation
American B-2 stealth bombers flying in formation overhead (Flickr).
The United States launched a direct assault on the Houthis, striking five underground weapons facilities in Yemen on October 16, 2024. The U.S. initiated the offensive in response to around 100 prior Houthi attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea. This follows an earlier U.S. strike on October 4. As reported by an anonymous U.S. Defense Official, the October 16 operation was the first time the U.S. used B-2 stealth bombers to target Houthi infrastructure. In a statement following the attack, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strike was “a unique demonstration of the United States' ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified.” Many believe this statement also served as a warning to Iran, which has been building nuclear facilities underground that experts speculate may be out of range of U.S. weapons.
Houthi ideology, which contains a “revolutionary mentality” that glorifies martyrdom, will likely intensify the situation, as the United States continues to engage with them in the growing conflict in the Middle East. The Houthi Movement, also known as Ansar Allah, began in the 1990s as the creation of Hussein Al-Houthi, a Muslim Shiite who some believe is a descendent of the Prophet Mohammed. Their core principles and ideas are detailed in Hussein Al-Houthi’s Manifesto “Fascicles.” Part of their narrative is the assertion that the divine chose Houthi followers to lead a Jihad against the United States, Israel, and their supporters.
Since the group took control of Yemen’s capital Sana’a in 2014 and later the government in 2015, Yemen has remained in a state of civil war. Now controlling land that houses more than 70 percent of the population, the Houthis reinforce and instill these beliefs in those they govern through propaganda. In particular, they target the school system, where they shape the student curriculum to meet their needs. These ingrained messages and the Houthi network of connections allow the group to recruit large amounts of young people. As the European Council on Foreign relations states, “the Houthis are capable of recruiting a seemingly endless number of fighters, including children, by drawing on popular support for their war efforts and by working with sheikhs and other neighborhood leaders.”
Understanding the Houthi ideology and base of support provides insight on why this group behaves as it does and what actions it may take in the future. Since the Houthis have strong ties to Iran, the European Council on Foreign Relations cautions that the Houthis are “generally distrustful of the mechanisms and bodies of international diplomacy and the international community, which they view as being controlled by their enemies, primarily Saudi Arabia, the US, and Israel.” Strategies to mediate conflict with this group will be challenging and must account for their core beliefs.