The Houthis Direct Their Leaders to Leave Their Homes and Stop Using Mobile Phones
In an exceptional measure, the Houthi group in Yemen has directed its military and political leaders to leave their homes and move to collective housing sites, in addition to stopping the direct use of mobile phones. These intelligence directives, described as the first of their kind, came amid fears that Israel might implement a similar scenario to that which targeted Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon.
According to informed Yemeni sources, these measures came "following a noticeable change in Israeli military strategy" which has recently shifted towards directly targeting leaders instead of infrastructure. Prior to these directives, a series of airstrikes targeted prominent leaders in the capital, Sana'a, and the provinces of Amran and Hajjah.
The sources revealed that the Houthi security apparatus ordered the group's leaders not to remain in visit sites for more than ten minutes, and to install surveillance cameras inside their vehicles to identify any parties that might track them. The measures also included relying on encrypted wireless devices for communication instead of mobile phones, which should be left with the escorts, in an attempt to avoid tracking communications.
These precautionary measures came after reports of the killing of the Houthi government head, Ahmed Ghaleb Al-Rahwi, in an Israeli airstrike on Sana'a on Thursday. A Yemeni source close to Al-Rahwi's family confirmed, according to what was reported by Sputnik news agency, that "Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the Hadda area south of Sana'a, resulting in 4 deaths, including Al-Rahwi and several of his companions, while others were injured."
For its part, the Israeli army announced that it "targeted a military objective in Sana'a with precise airstrikes," while informed Israeli sources revealed that "the strikes targeted first-tier Houthi officials," according to the "Israeli Army Radio."
In response to these reports, the Houthi group categorically denied targeting any of its leaders, describing the Israeli strikes as "failed."
