VOA News | Sunday, November 3, 2024 
UN expert: Iran transformed Yemen’s Houthi rebels into potent military force

UNITED NATIONS — Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been transformed from a local armed group with limited capabilities to a powerful military organization with support from Iran, Iraqi armed groups, Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants and others, U.N. experts said in a new report. The Iranian-backed Houthis have exploited the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and worked to enhance their status in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” to gain popularity in the region and beyond, the experts monitoring sanctions against the Houthis said in the 537-page report to the U.N. Security Council. To support Iranian-backed Hamas militants, whose surprise attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza, the Houthis have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, disrupting global shipping in a key geopolitical area. Despite Houthi claims that they would target ships linked to Israel, the panel said its investigations revealed the rebels have been targeting vessels indiscriminately. Its analysis of data from the International Maritime Organization, the U.S. and the United Kingdom revealed that at least 134 attacks were carried out from Houthi-controlled areas against merchant and commercial vessels and U.S. and U.K. warships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden between Nov. 15, 2023, and July 31, 2024. “The group’s shift to actions at sea increased their influence in the…Read more