The United States has launched massive strikes on areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi Ansar Allah movement. In recent days, the Pentagon has increased military pressure on this Shiite group, which is closely linked to Iran. According to Middle Eastern officials, the United States has approved preparations for a ground operation against the Houthis. It must rely on the support of the Gulf States. Meanwhile, they are in a cease-fire regime with Ansar Allah.
The US armed forces have increased airstrikes on areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthis, which have long relied on Iran’s military support. On April 7, American troops carried out a series of air raids against the group’s positions, including in the vicinity of their administrative capital, Sanaa.
CNN’s diplomatic sources in the Middle East said that the administration of US President Donald Trump had approved a ground operation against the Houthis. It should start from the south and east of the country. She may also receive support from the United States and Saudi Arabia from the sea, including in order to establish control over the port of Hodeidah, according to the channel’s interlocutors.
According to CNN, it is unlikely that the United States will deploy its ground forces in Yemen. However, it is quite possible that they will use their special forces to organize airstrikes, which have been stationed there since the 2000s, since the days of the active struggle against the Al-Qaeda group (recognized as terrorist in Russia and banned).
The Ansar Allah movement has been accusing the US authorities of creating a plan involving a direct invasion of Yemeni port cities since last fall. The Houthis fear the loss of Hodeidah, their strategically important point. The foreign minister in the Houthi government, Jamal Amer, said last year that the “invasion of Hodeidah” was critically necessary for the United States to “force Yemen to stop supporting Gaza.” Since October 2023, Ansar Allah has been actively supporting Hamas by attacking Israel and blocking international shipping, claiming that it will not stop attacks until complete silence is established in Gaza.
In March 2024, reports began to spread that the United States was not opposed to landing in Yemen. So, the Sky News Arabiya TV channel reported, citing a source, that the US military could be deployed to the Socotra archipelago in the Arabian Sea. This part of the territory is located in the zone of influence of the Southern Transitional Council, a separatist military–political platform close to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
A new round of military pressure on the Houthis began on March 15, on Trump’s orders. According to officials of his administration, the current bombing is more powerful than the operation that was announced in early 2024 by the team of former President Joseph Biden together with the British authorities. The US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, in particular, stated that the strikes since mid-March had been effective in neutralizing the main Houthi leaders. “Intelligence community assessments show that as a result of these strikes, the main Houthi leaders were killed and several facilities that the Houthis could use to produce modern conventional weapons were destroyed,” she said. But there is no real evidence that their top command suffered losses.
Officials in the US Congress, quoted by The New York Times, note that the success in destroying the huge arsenal of missiles, drones and launchers of the Houthis was only limited. Moreover, according to sources in The New York Times, in just a few weeks of strikes on Yemen, the Pentagon spent $200 million worth of ammunition. According to the interlocutors of the publication, the operation uses so many precision-guided munitions, especially long-range ones, that some Pentagon specialists involved in emergency planning are becoming increasingly concerned about the level of the US Navy’s arsenals after the attacks are over.
One of the problems in the strikes against Ansar Allah is that the militants have a well-fortified and deepened infrastructure. The Shiite movement has learned to use, among other things, the tunnel system that was built in Yemen back in the era of ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh and was intended both for military needs and for the protection of high-ranking members of the government. In this regard, it is extremely difficult to damage it.
Recently, the Gulf states, which, according to the idea of the United States, should support a possible US operation in Yemen, have tried to distance themselves from the conflict around Yemen and Iraq. They have a ceasefire with the Houthis. Now the Arabian players are simply being confronted with the fact.
In an interview with NG, Kirill Semenov, an expert at the Russian International Affairs Council, said that the Arabian monarchies would like to avoid a violent scenario in relation to Yemen. “However, Trump may begin to implement it without their support,– the source explained to NG. “He is able to negotiate with the local Yemeni forces, encourage them to attack Hodeidah, and turn them around.” According to the expert, this is especially true for the southern formations that rely on the UAE. “Therefore, of course, in general, this scenario looks more realistic than, for example, attacks on Iran. That is, for Trump, the deployment of American forces that is currently taking place in the region seems to be directed precisely against Ansar Allah rather than against Iran,” Semenov said.
Tehran is just indirectly being intimidated by the deployment of American forces, the source noted. According to him, the United States and Iran can simply play along with each other in this situation. “Even in Iran, they probably realize that all this is directed against Ansar Allah and that the Houthis may eventually even become a kind of bargaining chip,” the source explained. According to him, the task of the US president is to drive Iran deep into its interests and make sure that “it does not go anywhere.” This, according to the NG interlocutor, would allow Washington to avoid such maximally radical scenarios as an attempt to change the leadership in Iran, something that officials of the current administration of the US president hinted at.
