Aqil al-Shami

Aqil Ahmad Muhammad Qasim Al-Shami, the commander of the “Al-Nasser Brigades,” defined as elite forces of the Houthi movement. Al-Shami was born in the Saqin area of Saada Governorate and underwent military training in Iran and Lebanon. He was among the members of what was called the “Houthi terror cell in Sana’a,” who were tried in 2006–2007 on charges of forming an armed gang, attacking individuals and military vehicles, and carrying out a series of attacks. He was sentenced to ten years in prison but was released in early 2011 under a pardon issued by Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Subsequently, the Houthi movement appointed him to a position within the Defense Ministry structure and granted him the rank of lieutenant colonel, in a decree published on June 26, 2016, by the Chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee. He was later promoted to the rank of brigadier general and subsequently to major general. He was appointed commander of the Harad–Midi front, whose forces are deployed in the western and northwestern districts of Hajjah Governorate, along the border with Saudi Arabia, and along the Red Sea coast in northwestern Yemen. Under his command, combat forces were deployed within the framework of the “Al-Nasser Brigades,” alongside naval forces and other combat units. He is considered the senior military officer responsible for Houthi activities in the western coastal districts of Hajjah Governorate—particularly Abs, Midi, Haran, and Harad—which fall under the responsibility of the Harad region. He is involved in the Houthis’ maritime activities against vessels and in the organization’s military operations, and also participates in smuggling networks operating in the Red Sea and along the border with Saudi Arabia.