Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Houthi Ops Tracker

Partly in honor of Ali Al-Bukhaiti's op-ed below, I have started a small project to document Houthi military operations. I am monitoring official Houthi media for claims of military actions specifically, and recording them on a weekly and monthly basis. Over the long term, this should give researchers a better idea of what the Houthis are up to and where (at least according to their own claims).

There's a lot of options for monitoring official Houthi media. Since the early 2015 Houthi coup/takeover in Sanaa, outlets previously run by the internationally recognized Yemeni government are now run by the Houthis - this includes Saba News Agency, the Yemen TV satellite channel, and others. In other words, the Houthis now run what used to be official state media in Yemen - and in a twist I just can't seem to get accustomed to, use the outlets to claim Houthi military achievements as those of "the Yemeni armed forces".

I could also monitor outlets owned or friendly to former president/Houthi ally Ali Abdullah Saleh, as these often promote Houthi successes too. However, I've found that the most consistent and comprehensive source of information on Houthi actions is Al-Masirah, the Houthis' TV channel and news network. They issue multiple bulletins each day, in various media formats (video, print, audio), so recording them all won't be an easy task.

The point of the tracker is two-fold. One, to gain an awareness of the military image Houthis aim to project to the region. Two, to stay abreast of military developments in Yemen, at least from the Houthi perspective.

I'm two weeks into the tracker thus far, and the Houthis have already claimed over 150 military operations in November. Most were in Yemen, but about a quarter of them took place in Saudi provinces of Najran, Asir, and Jizan.


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