The Houthis have made a lot of headlines in recent months for their attacks on ships in the Red Sea and now also in the Mediterranean and Arabian Seas. While everyone looked at Ansar Allah as the poor brother in extremist style, the Houthis carried out their battle in Yemen, for over 10 years against the followers of the former deceased president Ali Abdullah Saleh supported now by Saudi Arabia and now by the United Arab Emirates.
And if in recent months the Houthis have effectively blocked navigation in the Red Sea, causing Egypt and Israel’s revenues to plummet, with Iranian support, within it, that is, in Yemen they continued their struggle for power.
After announcing the arrest of several Yemeni intelligence agents in a press release on May 6, the security forces of the Houthi rebel movement are renewing their hunt for supporters of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The movement, led by Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said a unit known as Unit 400, affiliated with the internationally recognized government in Aden, was deployed in Houthi-controlled western Yemen to gather intelligence on the location of weapons caches of the group and ships following the attacks in the Red Sea.
The designated leader of these forces is Ammar Afash, Saleh’s nephew, killed by the Houthis in 2017 during the battle for Sanaa. “The Yemeni spy”, as the Houthis called him “whose full name was Ammar Muhammad Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar, was director of the National Security Agency (NSA) during his uncle’s presidency, which lasted from 1990 to 2012, after having been appointed military attaché to Ethiopia in 2013”.
However, he has remained silent since being fired by President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi in 2015 following testimony from a former Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operative to Al Jazeera news channel implicating him financially in the attack on the American embassy in Sana in 2008.
In addition to Afash, other relatives of the late former President Saleh continue to work in Yemen’s security forces. Another of his nephews, Tarek Saleh, is the vice-president of the Yemeni Presidential Council, while remaining one of the leaders of the Giants Brigade, now known as the Southern Giants Brigade. This is an Abu Dhabi-backed group that is expanding its influence in southern Yemen.
Demonstrating the internal struggle between Sanaa and Aden, journalist Anis Mansour published a document on his official account on the “X” platform, commenting, “among Tariq Afash’s documents”, one that talks about the ineffectiveness of jamming devices for shoot down drones towards the sea.
The document issued by the commander of the coast guard, “Abdul-Jabbar Abdo Hassan Zahzouh”, addresses the commander of the national resistance, “Tariq Muhammad Abdullah Saleh”, and talks about the ineffectiveness of jamming devices placed in some areas to monitor drones launched by Sana’a forces towards Israeli ships.
According to the document, “the coast guard commander confirmed to Tariq Afash that the jamming devices provided to them by allies “America and Britain” are not effective in jamming and shooting down Houthi drones that were targeting international shipping in the Red Sea.
He added: “As for the Israeli side, we suggest inviting them to keep the promises agreed in Djibouti, unless we propose to cancel the agreement with them.” Interestingly, Tariq Saleh’s forces received a batch of jamming and monitoring devices that arrived through Mokha airport and were placed in a number of locations and mountains to confuse drones launched by Sana’a forces towards Israeli ships.
On January 30, Tariq Saleh, Al-Alimi’s deputy, made contact with the Egyptian ambassador to Yemen, Ahmed Farouk, and according to the news agency affiliated to the Presidential Council, which operates from Riyadh, Saleh confirmed that “security of the southern Red Sea is an integral part of the security of Yemen and the entire region”, considering that the operations conducted by Yemeni forces affiliated with Sanaa and Ansar Allah against Israeli ships are considered “current challenges” and that the two countries (Yemen and Egypt) must address them and continue to coordinate to address them.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
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