By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2025-04-09

ADEN -- As a US air campaign continues to target the Iran-backed Houthis' weapons facilities, the group's leadership has quietly left the areas that are most vulnerable to strikes, leaving the local population to take the heat.

Senior Houthi officials and their families evacuated Sanaa in tinted-window buses, with some retreating to mountainous areas in the north and others seeking refuge in safer areas nearby, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"The escalation of US strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen has prompted senior Houthi officials to leave the [former] Yemeni capital to the countryside in anticipation of further raids," political analyst Mahmoud al-Taher told Al-Fassel.

"This relocation reveals the Houthi leaders' concern over US strikes and their weakness and inability to confront these strikes, which aim to degrade their military capabilities and diminish their regional influence," he said.

"The Houthis are prepared to do anything to protect themselves, even if it comes at the expense of regional stability and the security of the international community."

Several families of prominent Houthi figures, including political and military leaders, have secretly fled to Oman, al-Awal news website said in an exclusive report April 4, citing "trusted sources."

The exodus reflects "deep anxiety among Houthi leadership" as strikes hit key command positions, said Fahmi al-Zubairi, director general of the human rights office in Sanaa.

"This targeting has begun to affect sensitive leadership positions within the group's structure, and this withdrawal is indicative of the militia's lack of confidence in its ability to protect its vital sites," he told Al-Fassel.

Human shields

Though they have left Sanaa -- and even, in some cases, Yemen -- the absent Houthi leaders continue to direct attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes, leaving Yemeni civilians vulnerable to reprisals.

It is particularly alarming that Houthi commanders are orchestrating Red Sea attacks from safe locations, while using civilian populations as "human shields" in clear violation of international humanitarian law, al-Zubairi said.

"This underscores the extent of this group's disregard for civilian life," he said.

The group's actions reveal it has become "a tool in the hands of regional parties to threaten international navigation and regional security," he said, noting that it is abandoning its claims of representing Yemeni interests.

"As Houthi leaders secure their sanctuaries in the mountains or outside the country, the most vulnerable segments of the population are left exposed, which reveals the stark contradiction between the group's rhetoric and actions."