What to know as Yemen’s Houthis launch new, more violent attacks on ships in the Red Sea

DUBAI: In just days, Yemen’s Houthis have begun a new, more violent campaign of attacks targeting ships in the Red Sea, sinking two of them and killing some of their crew.

The assaults represent the latest chapter of the Houthis’ campaign against shipping over the Israel-Hamas war. They also come as Yemen’s nearly decadelong war drags on in the Arab world’s poorest country, without any sign of stopping.

Here’s what to know about the Houthis, Yemen and their ongoing attacks.

Houthis involved in years of fighting

The Houthis are members of Islam’s minority Shiite Zaydi sect, which ruled Yemen for 1,000 years until 1962. They battled Yemen’s central government for years before sweeping down from their northern stronghold in Yemen and seizing the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. That launched a grinding war still technically being waged in the country today. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to try to restore Yemen’s exiled, internationally recognized government to power.