A crisis of confidence and an internal conflict.. A war of liquidations ravages the wings of the Houthis
English - Wednesday 09 August 2023 الساعة 05:22 pm
Sanaa, News Yemen, exclusive:
The crisis of confidence escalated among the leaders of the first echelon of the Houthi militia - Iran's arm in Yemen, to the extent of liquidations between the conflicting militia wings to extend influence and control.
The Houthi internal conflicts resulted in the formation of a number of wings, whose leaders are linked from the first row down to the middle leadership level to the base. And due to the divergence of visions, positions, influence, money, and revenues, these conflicts intensified and surfaced in a large and clear manner.
During the years of the war, the inter-conflicts were hidden and unannounced, as is the case today, as the differences between the Houthi wings became public, especially with the increase in statements and mutual accusations leading to assassinations and getting rid of opponents within the group itself. The pace of conflicts has intensified since the armistice was announced last April, which reduced the level of escalation on the battle fronts, which represented an important income for some militia leaders, which led to the overthrow of large Houthi leaders.
Despite the assassinations, kidnappings, and the arrest of many middle-level leaders and militia supervisors, and the dismissal of others from their posts, extreme secrecy prevailed among the movement regarding the disorder that was taking place. And now each wing confronts the other and seeks to control and extend influence - through the loyalists of each party - with the aim of acquiring as many positions as possible in state institutions, especially revenue.
Houthi endorsement
The Houthi leader, Muhammad al-Imad, director of the Houthi "identity" channel, implicitly acknowledged the emergence of differences within the group's wings, and the intensification of conflict between them, through the formation of individual entities that serve a special agenda. Al-Imad posted a tweet on his account on the "X" website (formerly Twitter), saying: "Imagine an official... one says we thank the officials of the two countries (Sana'a and Saudi Arabia)?" While the third says, "The Saudi refused to hand over the salaries from the amounts of Yemeni oil exports and wants to hand them over as aid from him?" He concluded his tweet by saying: "We told you that you want a military council that upset you...?"
Al-Imad criticized the contradictory statements of three militia leaders regarding the bilateral negotiations between the arm of Iran and Saudi Arabia, which he had previously hinted at in one of the episodes of the "Dome of Parliament" program, which was broadcast on his recently owned channel.
In the latest incidents and the most prominent liquidation operations among the Houthi leaders, the terrorist Houthi militia announced the death of what it described as the commander of the Air Force and Air Defense called Ahmed Al-Hamzi, in mysterious circumstances, who is primarily responsible for the drones and ballistic missile program that the Houthi militia obtained from Iran. He was responsible for attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.
A day earlier, the Houthi leader, Taha al-Mutawakkil, impersonating the Minister of Public Health and Population, and the director of his office, Muhammad Sharaf al-Din, and a number of their escorts, were injured in a fabricated traffic accident that led to their car overturning while they were on the road linking Amran and Sana'a.
Systematic qualifiers
On July 16, last month, the Houthi leader, Ali Hussein al-Houthi, was injured and his wife was killed, after they were shot by unknown gunmen while they were traveling on the road linking Amran and Sana'a. From his position as commander of the Rescue Forces in Sana'a, he was dismissed by the wing of Muhammad Ali al-Houthi, on the grounds of accusations of corruption against him.
What the Houthi leader was subjected to from the first ranks of the group confirms that the intensity of the conflict has moved from the ranks of the first base to the advanced.
And in mid-July, a prominent military leader named Muhammad Ahmad al-Nusra, nicknamed "Abu Aqil al-Matari", was assassinated in Al-Jawf Governorate by gunmen's bullets in the Al-Radamah area, east of Al-Hazm, the center of the governorate, after days of sharp disagreements with his commander, Abu Badr Zaraa, impersonating the status of the region's commander. Sixth Military, on smuggling and drug trade.
Recently, a wave of confrontations broke out between different wings of the coup militia, claiming the lives of a number of Houthi leaders who participated in the storming of Amran and Sana'a governorates.
Internal conflicts led to the killing of leaders, Mujahid Qushira, who had a role in storming the city of Amran, and Muhammad al-Shteiwi, director of the Political Security Service in the governorate of the same name.
Disagreements in state institutions
The differences between the ranks of the leaders of the Houthi militia expanded, to include a number of state institutions that are affected by the severity of the differences between the militias, this time reaching the Ministry of the Interior to include all institutions affiliated with this ministry.
On November 5, 2022, 11 people from the family of "Abdul Karim al-Houthi," impersonating the Minister of Interior in Sana'a, including his grandson, were killed in a traffic accident in the Bani Sarim district of Amran governorate, after their "salon" car collided with a 2022 double-deck car driven by a person who works in the qat trade and belongs to the Directorate. Razih, Saada Governorate.
The incident was premeditated, according to security sources in Sana'a, who said that sharp differences expanded between Houthi leaders in the Houthi Interior Ministry in Sana'a, over appointments and exclusion, in addition to major differences over the plundering of land and property of leaders in the legitimate government.
According to the sources, the uncle of the leader of the Houthi rebellion, who was appointed as their interior minister in Sana'a, looted dozens of homes and lands belonging to leaders and members of the legitimate government, under the name of "confiscating the properties of traitors and agents," according to their description.
The sources indicated that the disputes expanded as a result of the Houthis' refusal to give Houthi leaders belonging to the Saada governorate their share of the looted property, and that the Houthi had about 50% of the total looted, but he denied confiscating some of the houses he turned around in the names of his relatives, which led to a claim Saada leadership by giving them their share of all the looted homes and lands.
The sources said that the leaders of Saada threatened the Houthi Interior Minister with physical liquidation, in case he insisted on his intransigence and refused to give them their share of everything they looted, while the latter threatened them with imprisonment and complete disappearance, and despite the intervention of the so-called Mahdi Al-Mashat and the director of his office, the differences still exist.
Organized assassinations
And at the end of 2020, the prominent leader of the Houthi militia, and the Minister of Youth in its unrecognized government, Hassan Zaid, was assassinated by unknown persons, amid accusations from his family against Houthi leaders of being behind the incident.
In August 2019, Ibrahim Badr al-Din Amir al-Din al-Houthi, the brother of the leader of the Houthi militia, was assassinated in an apartment on Haddah Street in Sana'a, in the first mysterious operation targeting one of the brothers of the leader of the group, which controls all the security services in Sana'a, and surrounds their movements with complete secrecy.
In October 2016, the field leader, Salah al-Ezzi, brother of the deputy foreign minister in the so-called political council of the militia, Hussein al-Ezzi, was assassinated by gunmen affiliated with the wing of the leader Abu Ali al-Hakim, head of the so-called Houthi Military Intelligence.
On January 21, 2014, unidentified gunmen in a car that did not have a number, assassinated the leader, Ahmed Sharaf al-Din, a member of the Dialogue Conference for the Houthis, on Cairo Street in central Sana'a, then fled in the second targeting incident of a member of the Dialogue Conference, where the deputy and representative of the Houthis in the dialogue Abdul Al-Karim was shot dead by unknown persons at the end of November of the same year in Sana'a.
On November 2, 2014, an unknown gunman riding a motorcycle assassinated the prominent politician, Dr. Muhammad Abdul-Malik al-Mutawakkil, Assistant Secretary-General of the Union of Popular Forces and professor of political science at Sana’a University, while he was passing through al-Ziraa Street in the center of the capital, and despite the presence of Houthi points in most of the streets, only The perpetrator has not been arrested.
