Houthi advance a 'resounding victory', says Khamenei adviser
An adviser to Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei called the advance in Yemen by Tehran-backed Houthi fighters a "resounding victory" on Friday, after they seized a key island in the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait.
"Congratulations on this resounding victory, Ansar Allah," Mohammad Mokhber wrote on X, referring to the Houthis by their formal name.
14 September 2026, 19:19
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The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, is a Zaydi revivalist and Shia Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s. It is predominantly made up of Zaydis, whose namesake leadership is drawn largely from the al-Houthi family. (Google sometimes has trouble with grammar and syntax: "from"). So what's a "Zaydi"? A Zaydi (or Zaidi) is a follower of Zaydism, a major branch of Shiʿi Islam named after Zayd ibn ʿAlī, the great-grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
