HOUTHIS

About:

• The attack was claimed by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen. Indians were not the target of the attack.
  
  
• Yemen is located at the junction of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, its coastline commanding the strategic strait of Bab al-Mandab. The country has been wracked by civil war for more than seven years now, and the Houthis control the western part of the country, including the capital Sana’a.
  
  
• The war involves several nations directly or indirectly, and the attack in Abu Dhabi spotlights the multiple conflicts that are playing out in Yemen and the wider region as a whole.
  
  
• The Houthis are a large clan belonging to the Zaidi Shia sect, with roots in Yemen’s northwestern Saada province. Zaidis make up around 35 per cent of Yemen’s population.