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Is the US Serious About Destroying the Houthis’ Military Capabilities?

Many Yemenis are skeptical of Washington’s commitment to weaken the military capabilities of the Houthis in Yemen. (AP)
Many Yemenis are skeptical of Washington’s commitment to weaken the military capabilities of the Houthis in Yemen. (AP)
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Is the US Serious About Destroying the Houthis’ Military Capabilities?

Many Yemenis are skeptical of Washington’s commitment to weaken the military capabilities of the Houthis in Yemen. (AP)
Many Yemenis are skeptical of Washington’s commitment to weaken the military capabilities of the Houthis in Yemen. (AP)

Many Yemenis are skeptical of Washington’s commitment to weaken the military capabilities of the Houthis in Yemen. They see the recent strikes on military sites in five Yemeni provinces as nothing more than a proportional response to an attack on a single destroyer.

Expecting a limited impact from the strikes, Yemeni observers compared them to the US approach against Iranian-backed groups in Iraq.

Col. Sadeq Dweid, the spokesperson for the National Resistance Forces led by Gen. Tareq Saleh, a member of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), dismissed the recent airstrikes by the US and UK on Houthi targets as “not serious.”

He argued that foreign intervention is “not a solution and is unacceptable.”

Dweid said these strikes are part of internal maneuvering, emphasizing instead the importance of supporting the Yemeni government as the only legitimate representative of the country.

Many activists and residents share this view, believing that Washinton’s announcement to the Houthis that it intends to retaliate against them is confirmation that the aim wasn’t the destruction of the militias’ military capabilities, but simply a response to their targeting of an American destroyer in the Red Sea.

The militias had fired 24 drones and six ballistic and naval missiles against the vessel.

Yemeni journalist Fares Al-Humairi said the US and British strikes on Houthi-held areas hit positions which are not of strategic importance and others which don’t offer any support to the operations the militias are carrying out in the Red Sea.

Before the strikes, the Houthis moved weapons, including over 100 naval missiles, from dismantled military bases in Hodeidah to storage facilities, noted Al-Humairi.

Yemeni teacher Ahmed Abdulhameed said the US will handle the Houthis the same way it handled Iranian groups in Iraq - responding with limited strikes to each provocation.

He noted that Washington chooses to overlook the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq even though it an Iran-aligned group.

Abdullah Yahya echoed these remarks, saying the targeted locations hold no military significance to the Houthis.

Moreover, he explained that the militias, with help from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah, are experienced in disassembling rockets and concealing them in caves or the dense palm tree farms near the Red Seas coast.

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Hezbollah’s ‘Statelet’ in Syria’s Qusayr Under Israeli Fire

Smoke billows from al-Qusayr in western Syria following an attack. (SANA)
Smoke billows from al-Qusayr in western Syria following an attack. (SANA)
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Hezbollah’s ‘Statelet’ in Syria’s Qusayr Under Israeli Fire

Smoke billows from al-Qusayr in western Syria following an attack. (SANA)
Smoke billows from al-Qusayr in western Syria following an attack. (SANA)

Israel has expanded its strikes against Hezbollah in Syria by targeting the al-Qusayr region in Homs.

Israel intensified its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September and has in the process struck legal and illegal borders between Lebanon and Syria that are used to smuggle weapons to the Iran-backed party. Now, it has expanded its operations to areas of Hezbollah influence inside Syria itself.

Qusayr is located around 20 kms from the Lebanese border. Israeli strikes have destroyed several bridges in the area, including one stretching over the Assi River that is a vital connection between Qusayr and several towns in Homs’ eastern and western countrysides.

Israel has also hit main and side roads and Syrian regime checkpoints in the area.

The Israeli army announced that the latest attacks targeted roads that connect the Syrian side of the border to Lebanon and that are used to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah.

Qusayr is strategic position for Hezbollah. The Iran-backed party joined the fight alongside the Syrian regime against opposition factions in the early years of the Syrian conflict, which began in 2011. Hezbollah confirmed its involvement in Syria in 2013.

Hezbollah waged its earliest battles in Syria against the “Free Syrian Army” in Qusayr. After two months of fighting, the party captured the region in mid-June 2013. By then, it was completely destroyed and its population fled to Lebanon.

A source from the Syrian opposition said Hezbollah has turned Qusayr and its countryside to its own “statelet”.

It is now the backbone of its military power and the party has the final say in the area even though regime forces are deployed there, it told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Qusayr is critical for Hezbollah because of its close proximity to the Lebanese border,” it added.

Several of Qusayr’s residents have since returned to their homes. But the source clarified that only regime loyalists and people whom Hezbollah “approves” of have returned.

The region has become militarized by Hezbollah. It houses training centers for the party and Shiite militias loyal to Iran whose fighters are trained by Hezbollah, continued the source.

Since Israel intensified its attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the party moved the majority of its fighters to Qusayr, where the party also stores large amounts of its weapons, it went on to say.

In 2016, Shiite Hezbollah staged a large military parade at the al-Dabaa airport in Qusayr that was seen as a message to the displaced residents, who are predominantly Sunni, that their return home will be impossible, stressed the source.

Even though the regime has deployed its forces in Qusayr, Hezbollah ultimately holds the greatest sway in the area.

Qusayr is therefore of paramount importance to Hezbollah, which will be in no way willing to cede control of.

Lebanese military expert Brig. Gen Saeed Al-Qazah told Asharq Al-Awsat that Qusayr is a “fundamental logistic position for Hezbollah.”

He explained that it is where the party builds its rockets and drones that are delivered from Iran. It is also where the party builds the launchpads for firing its Katyusha and grad rockets.

Qazah added that Qusayr is also significant for its proximity to Lebanon’s al-Hermel city and northeastern Bekaa region where Hezbollah enjoys popular support and where its arms deliveries pass through on their way to the South.

Qazah noted that Israel has not limited its strikes in Qusayr to bridges and main and side roads, but it has also hit trucks headed to Lebanon, stressing that Israel has its eyes focused deep inside Syria, not just the border.