Who Are the Houthis and Why Is the U.S. Attacking Them?

livemint.com:

From their perch on the eastern side of the Red Sea, the Yemen-based rebels pose what could be one of the biggest threats to global shipping and, by extension, the world economy. In recent weeks, the Houthis have launched over two-dozen drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping bound for the Suez Canal, what they say is a response to Israel’s war against Hamas. Major shippers are now diverting vessels south around the Cape of Good Hope, adding some 40 days to voyages in what could be a far more damaging disruption than when the Ever Given cargo carrier got wedged in the canal in 2021.

Now, with a U.S.-led coalition launching more than a dozen strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, here is a look at where the Houthis came from, and what they might be hoping to achieve. Who are the Houthis? The Houthis are among the combatants in Yemen’s long-running civil war. They are named after religious and political leader Hussein Al-Houthi, who launched an insurgency in the 1990s against what he saw as the corrupt Yemeni government.

He gathered widespread backing among the northern tribes, who, like him, are Zaydis, a branch of Shia Islam that calls on its adherents to stand up against injustice wherever they see it. Houthi was killed in a battle with Yemeni forces in 2004 aged 45, but the group, now under the leadership of his brother, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, has since gained significant territory in a long-running civil war. Who are they fighting? More formally known as Ansar Allah, or Supporters of God, the Houthis are still vying for control of Yemen, the country that lies on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.