A researcher at the American Washington Institute: While the Houthis were attacking Saudi Arabia with two missiles a month, they were attacking Israel and ships with 36 missiles a month!

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Dr. Michael Knights, a prominent researcher at the Washington Institute specializing in military and security affairs in Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and the Gulf states, published a study on the military efforts of the Houthi group “Ansar Allah” since October 7, 2023.

The American researcher, who published his study in the “Counterterrorism Center” journal, concluded that the Houthis in Yemen, after their participation in the Gaza war, have jumped to the forefront of the resistance axis. He stated that they are the only party in this axis that has truly globalized the conflict through the movement of cutting off navigation to Israel. The study also found that the movement demonstrated boldness as the first party in the resistance axis to launch ballistic missiles at Israel. The study also concluded that Yemeni forces have shown flexibility in confronting American and British airstrikes.

Under the title “Leadership and Logistics in the Houthi Military Effort since October 7,” the researcher relied on information from open sources published online, most of which came from social media and official data. Under the aforementioned title, the researcher said that “the Houthi leadership and control system is well-organized to a reasonable extent and is generally led by experienced Houthi fighters.” He listed the military capabilities built by the forces of the Sanaa government since 2015, including the armed drones, naval forces, missile force, logistics services, preventive security, and intelligence gathering.

He stated that the attacks carried out by the forces of the Sanaa government against Israel were unprecedented, emphasizing that since October 19, when the first attack was launched until December, Yemen targeted the Israeli occupation entity with 46 ballistic and cruise missiles and drones. He added that “the American, European, Arab, and Israeli air defenses” worked together to counter these attacks.

Commenting on these attacks, Knights said that although most of them were intercepted by the defense systems of European, American, Arab, and Israeli countries, it was impressive that the Houthis were able to launch multiple attacks over distances exceeding 1,900 kilometers in a relatively short time. He added that “these attacks imposed huge spending on more expensive interception systems by the United States, Britain, and Israel,” and confirmed that “since mid-November 2023, it has become difficult to distinguish whether all the cruise missiles and drones launched northwards were targeting Israel itself or ships in the Red Sea.” This indicates the increasing number of attacks carried out by the Yemeni armed forces and the escalating number of guided weapons and missiles launched in each attack.

Knights also stated that the rate of launching ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones to carry out attacks against “Israel” or against targeted ships since October 19, 2023, until April 24, 2024, is much higher than the rate of launches against Saudi Arabia during the war period from 2015 until early April 2022. In this context, the American researcher reached a numerical result regarding the number of missiles and drones launched by the forces of the Sanaa government in the attack against Israel within one month, compared to the launches of the same weapons against Saudi Arabia during the intensification of the war between Riyadh and Sanaa. He stated that by calculating the number of drones launched by the Yemeni forces against Saudi Arabia throughout the war period (2015-2022) and dividing it by the number of months, the equation becomes 11 drones launched against Saudi Arabia per month, compared to 40 drones launched per month against targets in Israel or against targeted ships.

As for the ballistic and cruise missiles launched by the forces of the Sanaa government against Saudi Arabia from 2015 until April 2022, the rate of launching becomes only two missiles per month. However, in the current attacks against Israel or targeted ships, the rate of missile launches per month is 36.6, which is a very high rate.