Yemen’s Ansar Allah strikes blow against U.S. imperialism

Since Sept. 3, Yemen has seen its most intense ground fighting between Ansar Allah and the U.S.-Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) since the 2022 ceasefire. Ansar Allah has won major victories against forces of the PLC along the Red Sea coast, including the liberation of the port city of Mocha and the important strategic location Mayun Island. With the capture of Mayun, Ansar Allah has near-complete control of the Bab al-Mandeb strait.

This is a significant development as the strait is the southern gateway to the Suez Canal. Control over the strait increases Ansar Allah’s leverage over vital shipping lanes for imperialist powers like the U.S. and Britain. 

The PLC has long claimed to be the legitimate government of Yemen, and is widely recognized as such by the Western world. However, this could not be further from the truth. Even before this recent offensive, Ansar Allah controlled territory that holds roughly 80% of Yemen’s population. Ansar Allah territory includes the capital city of Sanaa and most of the major ports in the country. 

Ansar Allah forces were met with cheers and celebration as their armored vehicles and infantry columns pushed the Saudi-U.S. mercenary coalition out of various towns along the coast. In the capital of Sanaa, millions took to the streets to celebrate the Ansar Allah victories. 

Counter to the narrative in corporate media, this recent round of fighting did not begin because of increased “Houthi terrorism.” First of all, the term “Houthis,” taken from the family name of the movement’s founder, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, killed by the Yemeni government in 2004, is the name Western media overwhelmingly uses instead of Ansar Allah. The usage reduces a mass political movement to a family and intentionally mischaracterizes the nature of the Shia Islamist movement in Yemen. Second, the real terrorists are not Ansar Allah, but the U.S.-supported Saudi war criminals and militias. 

In mid August, PLC militias and the Saudi Arabian air force escalated attacks on the eastern and southern parts of Ansar Allah territory.  On Aug. 18, PLC militias, in conjunction with Saudi special forces, launched more than 100 military operations against Ansar Allah-controlled cities and towns. These sorts of attacks have continued since that time. In just 48 hours, beginning Sept. 10, Saudi Arabia carried out 129 air strikes across seven Yemeni provinces. A few days before that, the Saudi air force also bombed Yemen’s Central Corrective Facility, killing 23 f12people, including a child. 

Whether from Saudi Arabia, the PLC, or the United States proper, this is the sort of terror that the people of Yemen have faced for almost 12 years. Amidst the escalation of fighting in Yemen, the criminal Trump administration released a report that detailed the deaths of 153 Yemeni civilians last year due to U.S. airstrikes. Again, who are the real terrorists here? 

The fact is, the war in Yemen is not a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, nor is it even a war between Yemen and Saudi Arabia or Ansar Allah and the PLC. This war is between the masses of workers and oppressed people of Yemen against the entire U.S. imperialist establishment. Without U.S. backing, Saudi Arabia never could have waged this war in the first place. The same is true for the PLC militias still operating. 

Since Ansar Allah overthrew what was a Vichy Yemeni regime in 2014, the U.S. has sought violently to regain control over the country’s affairs. If the U.S. were to have its way, all of the wealth created via Yemen’s Red Sea coast shipping lanes would go to a few Western billionaires. In fact, the entire country would be turned into a U.S. economic and military outpost against Iran, Russia, and China. The imperialist desire to subdue Yemen once again only increased as Ansar Allah intervened against the U.S.-zionist genocide in Palestine. 

Ansar Allah, supported by the people of Yemen, has thwarted that agenda at every turn. When their fighters liberate port cities and push deeper into PLC-controlled territories, they are striking blows not just for themselves and against their political rivals, but for the entire global working class and against the imperialist beast itself.