Houthi Red Sea offensive elevates enigmatic Yemeni commander's standing ↧ ↧ Houthi Red Sea offensive elevates enigmatic Yemeni commander's stan... Abdul Malik al-Houthi, an elusive figure who commands a battle-hardened force, scored his biggest military victory in years when his Iran-aligned Houthi militant group swept through Yemen's Red Sea ​coastline and tightened their grip on a vital shipping waterway, rattling oil superpower Saudi Arabia.