A report published by Al-Manar TV channel, which is affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iran’s arm in Lebanon, on March 5, 2015, revealed the early relationship between the Houthis and al-Qaeda organization, which began with the first steps of Hussein al-Houthi’s establishment of his terrorist movement under Iranian sponsorship at the beginning of this century.

The relationship began to emerge after the September 11, 2001 bombings of the two world trade towers, when Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi showed a biased position to the terrorist al-Qaeda organization, after declaring the international war led by the United States of America against terrorism.

The report, which came under the title (Death to America, Death to Israel, Victory to Islam… Ansar Allah) says that in response to the position of US President George W. Bush, who addressed the world by saying (Either you are with us or you are against us) after the September 2001 bombings, Hussein al-Houthi said: “We should be in the camp of Islam and not in the camp of unbelief.”

Hussein al-Houthi found in this international war that was waged against al-Qaeda organization a means to start mobilization and incitement in favor of his terrorist project. According to Al-Manar TV report, after the September bombings, Al-Houthi began organizing gatherings and giving lectures that were talking about jihad against the infidels and the United States of America, which he said was occupying Yemen and Islamic countries.

Early terrorist tendencies:

Hussein al-Houthi's terrorist tendencies appeared early in the eighties of the last century, under the banner of jihad.. And according to the testimony of his brother-in-law, Abd al-Rahim al-Humran - loyal to the Houthis - who spoke to the Al-Arabi website that al-Houthi had always dreamed of participating in the fight alongside Iran in its war against Iraq in 1980.. He revealed that Hussein al-Houthi had allocated a visit in early 1987 to the religious Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman in Cairo.

And Omar Abdul Rahman - was one of the religious men in Egypt, and he was convicted by the United States of being behind the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York on February 26, 1993, and was also convicted of plotting to blow up major landmarks in New York, including the United Nations building, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in an American prison in February 2017.

According to al-Humran’s testimony, Hussein al-Houthi’s keenness to visit Omar Abdul Rahman had goals related to his terrorist tendencies, where he says that “Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman is the author of lectures of reviving the absent duty of jihad, for which demonstrations took place at Cairo University that were suppressed by the Egyptian authorities.” And this made Hussein al-Houthi travel to Cairo to meet him.

Iran.. And the terror twins:

According to analysts, the Houthis and the Al-Qaeda organization were and are still moving in parallel and simultaneous lines to target the structure of the Yemeni state, in a way that would enable them to bring it down and to become prey to the Iranian regime.

While al-Qaeda was targeting the army with terrorist operations and imposing closed areas for it in Abyan and other governorates before 2010, the Houthis were waging successive wars against the Yemeni army in northern Yemen, under religious and jihadi slogans.

And according to Yemeni and American intelligence reports, this mutual service and cooperation between the Houthis and Al-Qaeda represent an extension of the Iranian regime's relationship with Al-Qaeda and ISIS within the framework of its project to control the region, after its success in expanding in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

And the announcement of the US State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program on June 23, 2021 about the leader of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Khaled Batarfi, came to unveil the relationship between Al-Qaeda and the Houthis in Yemen, which are run from Tehran. Revealing that Batarfi is carrying out the instructions of his leaders who are in Iran.

The text of the American declaration was as follows: “While his leaders in #Al-Qaeda are having fun in Iran, where they take it as their headquarters, Khaled al-Batarfi and his followers carry out the instructions of these leaders to spill the blood of innocent people in #Yemen. There is no place for those who betray Al-Qaeda in Yemen, now nor in the future."

The most prominent types of mutual services:

During the past twenty years, several forms of cooperation between the Houthis and al-Qaeda appeared, which were characterized by their mutual servers and the exchange of roles within the framework of one war to weaken the state, in a way that enables the Iranian project in the region - according to observers.

And the two reports of the Security Council Panel of Experts on Yemen for the years 2019 and 2020 talked about cooperation between the Houthis, Al-Qaeda and ISIS, which appeared in the form of a prisoner exchange. Where the two reports documented two prisoner exchanges, the first had done between the Houthis and Al-Qaeda in September 2019 and the second has done between the Houthis and ISIS in April 2020.

In a statement made to the Yemeni news agency Saba in August 2020, Minister of Information Muammar al-Eryani revealed five processes of prisoner releases carried out by the Houthis for members of terrorist Al-Qaeda organization during the period from November 2018 to April 2020, and the number of those released reached 72 terrorist members.

In a report issued by the Yemeni embassy in Washington at the end of May 2018, the report spoke of photographic evidence proving the revival of the activities of smuggling networks in Houthi-controlled areas and in those where Al-Qaeda is present, including arms smuggling, human trafficking and smuggling of antiquities, alcoholic beverages, medicines and narcotics.

And the forms of cooperation are not limited to the above only, where the National Army forces had published confessions of prisoners of the Houthi militia, during which they confirmed that they were fighting in the ranks of Al-Qaeda before the Houthi militia attracted them to fight in its ranks and they were captured on the front lines.

On September 2, 2020, the Media Center of the Yemeni Armed Forces published the confessions of the terrorist Musa Nasser al-Malhani, who was captured while fighting alongside the Houthi militia in Al-Jawf.

In his confessions, the terrorist al-Malhani confirmed that he was one of the members of Al-Qaeda and that later on he was attracted by the Houthis. He stressed the militia's dependence on many al-Qaeda members residing in Sana'a to run its headquarters to mobilize fighters.

Also, a national security report, submitted to the UN Security Council this year, documented confessions made by the terrorist al-Qaeda judge Ali Muhammad Abdullah Hussein Drama nicknamed (Judge Bishr), who was arrested on January 13, 2021 in Marib Governorate, in which he disclosed a lot of information about coordination between al-Qaeda and the Houthi militia.

The report revealed that the Houthi intelligence service embraces terrorist elements from the terrorist organizations of ISIS and al-Qaeda of non-Yemeni nationalities who are fighting against the legitimate forces and the Houthi militia secures their presence, their movements and their participation in the management of combat operations.

And the report pointed to the funerals organized by the Houthi militia for the two terrorist bodies Saeed Abdullah Ahmed al-Khabrani, known as (Abu Hayil) and his brother Hamid, known as (Abu Nawaf), who were killed while fighting in the Houthi ranks in mid-August 2020, broadcast by the Houthi Al-Masirah TV channel, and this confirms that the close relationship and the great status advantage enjoyed by the terrorist elements in the ranks of the Houthi militia.

Upgraded version:

And over the past years, the Houthi militia has emerged as an upgraded version of terrorist organizations, especially in the methods of carrying out murders, terrorist bombings, methods of obtaining funds, followers, building alliances and managing areas of self-influence.

While al-Qaeda called itself "Ansar al-Sharia", the Houthi militia called itself "Ansar Allah" directly, and they both seek the same goal. Al-Qaeda aims to establish a so-called "Caliphate State", while the Houthi group seeks to impose a "Guardianship System". And to achieve this, al-Qaeda and Houthi raised slogans claiming to fight “America and Israel” and to charge with infidelity all those who disagree with them, and they participated in working to weaken state institutions and the rule of law so that they could expand in the country and replace themselves as an alternative to the state.

And the terrorist Houthi militia has excelled in targeting international interests in Yemen and the region - which are the most important common goals between it and al-Qaeda - using missiles, suicide drones, booby-trapped boats and Iranian-made naval mines, taking advantage of its control over some Yemeni ports, and all this did not reach any terrorist organization in the world despite its presence in the area for a long time.

While al-Qaeda uses religious beliefs to attract fighters and carry out terrorist operations, the Houthi group resorts to imposing its extremist beliefs in the community and mobilizing fighters by force of arms under the name of the “Quranic march,” both of which depend on the recruitment and use of children and women in their terrorist and intelligence operations. In this regard, the Houthi militia significantly outperformed al-Qaeda, whether in recruiting thousands of children or abducting hundreds of women and forcing them to work for it.

The Houthi militia has also excelled in ways of obtaining revenue and money, while al-Qaeda depends on attacking banks and looting their money, as happened in the cities of Mukalla and Seiyoun, the Houthi militia is implementing continuous campaigns to impose levies and royalties on merchants, companies and citizens in its areas of control, as well as its control over all funds of the Central Bank in Sana'a and its branches in all the Governorates it controls.

In addition, it has expanded its activities to abduct foreigners in order to obtain huge sums of hard currency (ransom) in exchange for their release, to reach the citizens of Arab countries, foremost of which is Saudi Arabia, reaching to the request of Yemeni families to pay the "ransom" in exchange for the release of their relatives abducted because of their political views. This method was the preserve of al-Qaeda and restricted to foreigners only.

In the context of killing foreigners, the Houthis and al-Qaeda carried out abductions and killings of foreigners, most notably the abducting and killing of 7 foreigners in Saada by the Houthis in 2009, as well as the killing of 4 Korean tourists in Shibam Hadhramawt, in addition to dozens of abductions of foreigners committed by both terrorist entities.

Inspirational experience:

While the world has been waging a relentless war against terrorism over the past years and succeeded in weakening it and curtailing its activities, the terrorist Houthi militia was able - thanks to Iranian support - to bypass the global anti-terror radar, thus becoming the first terrorist group in the world to turn against a country and plunders its capabilities, threatens international interests and push the majority of Yemenis to starvation.

The wars waged by the Houthi militia - which has not yet ended - have killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis - most of them women and children - and turned millions into displaced people, refugees and migrants inside and outside Yemen, living in extremely difficult humanitarian conditions.

Despite the crimes of the Houthi militia, its bloody nature and its rejection of all international peace efforts, despite the concessions made by the legitimate Yemeni government, the international community still overlooks the danger that this group poses to Yemenis and the world at large, and thus it is the only terrorist group in the world that has areas of autonomous influence and has an arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones.

The Yemeni government has previously warned that the approach taken by the terrorist Houthi militia to overthrow the Yemeni state and use the country's capabilities in its expansionist wars in light of lax international positions, represents an inspiring experience for other terrorist organizations in the region and the world, and indicates limitless dangers to Yemen, the region and international security and peace.