Who Are the Houthis and What Do They Want?

Their fighting with pro-government forces over Yemen's Red Sea coast and attacks on Saudi Arabia have drawn attention to the Iran-backed group.

Yemen's devastating civil war has flared in recent months, with fierce clashes between the Iran-backed Houthi movement, which controls much of the country's northwest, and pro-government forces in Saudi Arabia.

In September, the Houthis seized part of Yemen's Red Sea coast near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a stopover for international shipping at the Red Sea's southern entrance. Their advance helped further boost oil prices after six months of war between the United States, Israel and Iran.

In early October, pro-government forces said they had succeeded in regaining control of territory overlooking Bab al-Mandab after launching a major counteroffensive backed by heavy Saudi airstrikes.

The Houthis responded to these attacks by launching missiles and drones at military bases, energy facilities and airports in Saudi Arabia. At least 13 people were killed when a missile hit Riyadh's international airport on October 10, the deadliest attack in the kingdom in more than a decade.

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They are an armed political and religious group from northern Yemen that supports the Zaidi minority in this country. Zaidi is a branch of Shia Islam.

The Houthis declare themselves part of an Iranian-led "axis of resistance" against Israel, the United States and the wider West - along with armed groups such as Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.

Officially known as Ansar Allah (Party of God), this group emerged in the 1990s and took its name from the late founder of the movement, Hossein al-Houthi. His brother, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, has been its de facto leader since 2004.

In the early 2000s, the Houthis fought several insurgencies against Yemen's longtime dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. They wanted more autonomy for the group's main land in northern Yemen.

During the 2011 Arab Spring, a popular uprising forced Saleh to cede power to his deputy, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

President Hadi's government was mired in trouble, with the Houthis taking control of the northern province of Saada before capturing the capital Sanaa in 2014.

In 2015, they captured large parts of western Yemen, forcing Hadi to flee the country, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene on behalf of the government.

The conflict has since killed more than 150,000 people and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with more than 22 million people in need of some form of assistance, according to the United Nations.

The Houthis have continued to grow, with UN experts estimating that they may have recruited up to 350,000 fighters by 2024. They control between a quarter and a third of Yemen's territory, where about three quarters of the population live.

Saudi Arabia was afraid that the Houthis would take over Yemen and turn it into satellites of the regional rival of this kingdom, i.e. Iran, so they removed the government from this country.

The Saudis formed a coalition with other Arab countries that launched an air campaign in 2015 aimed at restoring the government's authority. They received logistical and intelligence support from the United States, Great Britain, and France.

But years of airstrikes and ground battles by the Yemeni army and anti-Houthi militias could not expel the Houthis from most of the areas they had captured.

A temporary ceasefire was brokered in 2022 that largely halted the war. That year, Hadi also transferred his powers to the new Presidential Leadership Council, which oversees the Aden-based government.

Soon after the Gaza war began in October 2023, the Houthis began firing drones and rockets at Israel and commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they were acting in support of the Palestinians.

Western countries deployed warships to protect the ships, and the United States, Britain and Israel launched airstrikes aimed at weakening the Houthis' military capabilities. Israel's attacks also killed senior Houthi figures, including the prime minister of the group's self-proclaimed government.

The Houthis stopped their attacks on Israel after the October 2025 cease-fire in Gaza, but resumed them after the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February 2026.

An unofficial ceasefire between the Houthis and the Saudis began in July.

The Houthis declared a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and launched missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's airports and oil facilities. Oil tankers in the Red Sea said they were retaliating against what they called a "siege" of ports and airports in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, as well as an airstrike on Sana'a airport that month, which they blamed on Saudi Arabia.

This was followed by a rapid advance by the Houthis in September, which captured 130 km (81 mi) of Yemen's southwestern Red Sea coastline, including the port city of Mokha and the island of Prim (Mayun).

The move gave the Houthis significant control over the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait, but they insisted they posed no threat to international shipping except those linked to Saudi Arabia.

In October, the Yemeni government announced the start of a new offensive with the aim of recapturing all areas under the control of the Houthis. According to reports, pro-government forces have since retaken control of the area around Bab al-Mandab with the help of heavy Saudi airstrikes. But the Houthis have denied losing their territory there.

Reports indicate that during the escalation of conflicts in Yemen, hundreds of people have been killed on the ground. The United Nations says more than 200,000 people have recently been displaced.

The actions of the Houthis have caused renewed concern about the disruption of the global oil supply. After shipping through the Strait of Hormuz on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula was restricted due to the US-Israeli war with Iran, Bab al-Mandab became an important route for the export of oil from Saudi Arabia.

This situation has been aggravated by the Houthi missiles, drone attacks on airports and Saudi oil and gas facilities, as well as the September attack on the kingdom's east-west pipeline, which Iraqi militias supported by Iran blamed.

The escalation of tension has again threatened the Western powers.

After the deadly attack on the Riyadh airport, US President Trump said he would "make a decision" on whether the US would join Saudi Arabia's attacks on the Houthis.

Meanwhile, Britain agreed in September to deploy a military aircraft to help refuel Saudi fighter jets in the air for "purely defensive missions".

The lightning advance of the Houthis in Yemen may bring new dangerous dimensions to the war with Iran

Saudi Arabia and Western powers say Iran has smuggled weapons -- including drones, and cruise and ballistic missiles -- to the Houthis during Yemen's civil war, in violation of a U.N. arms embargo.

A group of UN experts concluded in 2024 that the Houthis have become a powerful military organization due to the transfer of materials, aid and training from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and Iraqi experts.

And a May 2026 report by Conflict Armament Research (CAR) – after the start of the Iran war – found that while in the past Tehran had sent finished weapons to the Houthis, it was now increasingly sending parts that its proxies could assemble, as well as sharing advanced missile technologies.