The Yemeni government on Tuesday claimed 21 agents from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon's Hezbollah were helping to plan and direct Houthi operations during the civil war in Yemen.
Yemeni Interior Minister Ibrahim Haidan said the group comprises 14 IRGC experts and seven Hezbollah members. He said their involvement amounted to an expansion of foreign support for the Houthis, moving beyond funding and training to directly supervising operations.
Mr Haidan said the suspects were experts in fields such as drones and ballistic missiles, surveillance, electronic warfare and smuggling military equipment. The ministry did not identify the 21 suspects, or provide evidence to substantiate the allegations.
The minister also accused them of helping to co-ordinate naval operations, select targets among commercial vessels, develop explosive-laden boats and autonomous underwater weapons, and train Houthi fighters in minelaying and urban warfare.
The minister claimed the group was led by an IRGC military officer. He said the members included a supervisor of operations, a strategic adviser, the head of a joint operations room, and specialists in drones ballistic missiles and maritime operations.
“This is not a training mission, but a fully fledged general staff,” Mr Haidan said.
He warned that the alleged activities threatened regional security, the safety of seafarers and freedom of navigation through the Bab Al Mandeb strait and Red Sea, as well as international trade and energy supplies. He also said the transfer of military expertise and technology could enable other armed groups to develop similar capabilities.
According to a statement issued by the ministry on Tuesday, the agents are based across six Yemeni governorates: eight in Hodeidah, four each in Sanaa and Saada, two each in Hajjah and Amran, and one in Al Khokha.
Mr Haidan called on the international community to designate the Houthis as a terrorist organisation. He accused the group of using Yemen as a testing ground for ballistic missiles, drones, cruise missiles and explosive-laden speedboats.
Houthi advance
The Houthis have advanced to within 80km of Aden, according to four military sources cited by Reuters on Monday. The advance brings the group closer to the city than at any point since the early months of the war in 2015, when Houthi fighters briefly entered Aden before being driven out.
The latest push threatens strategic positions along the main road linking Aden with the besieged city of Taiz. It follows a broader offensive that began in September, when Houthi forces moved down Yemen’s Red Sea coast and seized territory near the Bab Al Mandeb strait, a major international shipping route and a key passage for Saudi oil exports to Asia.
The military sources said the advance could allow the Houthis to outflank government forces along the mountain range overlooking the strait. Government troops had driven Houthi fighters from the area only weeks earlier.
The latest escalation has shattered a 2022 UN-brokered truce that had largely halted major attacks in a war that began in 2014, when the Houthis drove the government from Sanaa. The fighting has also opened a volatile front in the wider regional conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran.
