Abdul Malik al-Houthi

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi (Abu Jibril) is a Yemeni cleric and military leader who serves as the leader of the Houthi movement – Ansar Allah. He was born on May 22, 1979, in Saada Governorate, Yemen, and comes from the al-Houthi family, which belongs to the Zaidi branch of Shia Islam. His father, Badr al-Din, was a religious scholar, and Abdul-Malik is the youngest of eight brothers. His elder brother, Hussein, founded the Houthi movement with the aim of strengthening Zaidi ideology against the Wahhabi influence penetrating from Saudi Arabia, and to fight the central government in Yemen, which had sunk into corruption and neglected many members of the Zaidi minority, leaving them in poverty and distress. After Hussein’s death in 2004 during a battle with government forces, Abdul-Malik inherited the leadership of the movement thanks to his charismatic and commanding abilities, despite being the youngest of his brothers. Since 2004 he has lived in hiding and avoided public appearances, with his speeches broadcast in recorded messages – something that turned him, among his supporters, into an almost mystical leader, and a difficult target for the many assassination attempts made against him over the years. In 2011 he took advantage of the weakening of the central government following the Arab Spring, and his forces began taking over territories in northern Yemen, until in 2014 they succeeded in capturing the capital city Sana’a and additional vast areas. During the years of the upheaval in Yemen, many army officers joined his forces, and today he controls about one-third of the country’s territory and roughly 70 percent of the population. He established a political and military administration that includes alliances with Zaidi and Sunni tribes in the areas under his control, and maintains an extensive system of propaganda, education, and recruitment. Abdul-Malik maintains close ties with Iran, with the shared goal of countering Saudi influence in Yemen and serving as an important component in the axis acting against Israel and the United States. His forces have launched missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles toward Israel and countries in the Arabian Peninsula, while simultaneously attacking ships sailing toward the Suez Canal in an attempt to harm Israel’s maritime trade.