Nine Months of Silence: Houthi Rebels Finally Admit Top Commanders Wiped Out by U.S.

Following nine months of calculated silence, the Houthi leadership in Yemen has been forced to acknowledge the deaths of five of its most senior military officers. The announcement comes as the group prepares to hold high-profile funerals on Thursday for the commanders, who were neutralized during a series of American air strikes back in March. This delayed admission reveals the severity of the operational vacuum left by the strikes and highlights the group’s desperate attempts to manage internal morale and conceal the depth of foreign intelligence penetrations.

The list of the deceased includes several high-ranking figures who were pivotal to the group’s technical and operational capabilities. Chief among them was Major General Zakaria Hajar, the commander of the Houthi drone unit. Hajar was a central figure in the development of the organization’s missile and unmanned aerial vehicle programs, working in close coordination with advisors from Iran’s Quds Force. Other notable casualties include Brigadier Generals Abdullah Hajar, Ahid Hajar, and Hussein al-Hashimi, as well as Muhammad al-Haifi, the operations officer for the Houthi special forces.

Experts believe the Houthis maintained this wall of silence for nearly a year for several strategic reasons. By hiding the deaths, the group sought to project an image of stability and strength while preventing a collapse in the chain of command. Furthermore, admitting to the targeted killings would have confirmed the terrifying precision of U.S. and coalition intelligence, which had successfully identified and struck key members of the organization’s most sensitive "Quality Force" units. The delay also served to downplay the direct links between these officers and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, as many of the men were family members of the Houthi inner circle and were instrumental in smuggling Iranian weaponry into the region.

Zakaria Hajar in particular was a wanted man long before his death. Since 2022, he had been on Yemen’s official list of terrorist leaders facing trial for rebellion and murder. Saudi Arabia also officially designated him as a terrorist in August 2022 due to his direct role in launching ballistic missiles and drones against international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. With his burial, the Houthis lose one of their most experienced links to Tehran, dealing a massive blow to their ability to sustain a high-tech war against global maritime trade.