Hawzah News Agency- What follows is based on a note by Amin Abu Rashid on the reasons behind the resilience and steadfastness of Ansarullah forces.
From the Mountains to the Battlefield: The Secret of Yemen's Endurance
The power of Yemen's Ansarullah cannot be measured merely by troop numbers, weapons stockpiles or military capability. A movement that emerged from the mountainous regions of Saada with limited resources has, over years of war, become a force capable of resisting large-scale military campaigns and cementing its place in Yemen's political and military equation. The secret of this endurance lies in a combination of combat experience, organizational cohesion, knowledge of geography and a will that has turned war, for part of this movement's forces, into something beyond a military confrontation.
Yemen's rugged mountains, despite their many hardships, have become one of Ansarullah's most important advantages. Forces that grew up in such an environment learned from the outset how to fight with minimal resources, exploit the terrain and withstand a force with greater equipment and capabilities. In such a battle, military superiority does not necessarily mean victory, because knowledge of the land, the ability to adapt to difficult conditions and readiness for a prolonged war can change the battlefield equation.
But Ansarullah's steadfastness is not limited to Yemen's geography or its way of fighting. The movement formed amid a set of religious, political and social developments that gradually became an identity and a motive for resistance. The Houthis follow the Zaidi school of thought, and the spread of Salafi currents in Yemen — particularly from the early 1980s and at times with Saudi support — was among the factors behind tensions in the country's northern regions. Zaidi tribes, who had already suffered from the central government's neglect, faced religious concerns alongside political and social demands, and these issues gradually played a role in the formation of the Houthi movement.
The "Believing Youth" movement, founded in 1992, was among the early foundations of Ansarullah's formation. With the start of the Houthis' wars against the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2004, the movement's confrontation entered a new phase, and its conflict with Saudi Arabia also intensified. Saudi Arabia directly entered military conflict with the Houthis in 2009 — six years before Operation Decisive Storm in 2015 escalated the war to a wider stage.
In the years that followed, military attacks and the blockade of Yemen failed to remove Ansarullah from the battlefield. Saudi Arabia sought to defeat the movement by forming various coalitions and drawing on its military capabilities, but the war did not produce the expected result. What initially appeared to be a local rebellion in Saada gradually transcended its geographical confines, and with the fall of Sanaa to the Houthis in 2014, the movement became one of the main power players in Yemen.
This experience showed that Ansarullah cannot be viewed merely as an armed group with a limited arsenal. The ability to maintain cohesion under wartime conditions, use available resources and continue fighting against a force with greater military power are among the factors that have helped it endure. While regular armies typically seek victory in decisive battles, groups like Ansarullah can rely on their social and geographical environment to prolong the war and raise the costs for the other side. In such conditions, even superiority in firepower is no guarantee of achieving political and military objectives.
With the expansion of the conflict to the Red Sea and attacks on international shipping, Ansarullah's position in regional equations has also changed. Yemen is no longer merely the scene of a civil war or a Saudi-Houthi confrontation; the security of maritime routes and global trade is now tied to this conflict. Saudi, Iranian, US and Israeli calculations are now intertwined with developments in this region, and any escalation could have consequences beyond Yemen's borders.
The secret of Ansarullah's steadfastness must be sought in the combination of combat experience, knowledge of geography, organizational cohesion and the ability to continue fighting in the harshest conditions. Forces that rose from the mountains of Saada with limited resources learned over years of war how to overcome their limitations, use the terrain as a military advantage and withstand large-scale attacks.
In such a battlefield, what makes a military force resilient is not only weapons and equipment; the will to continue fighting, adaptability to difficult conditions and readiness to bear the costs of a long war also matter. Relying on these characteristics, Ansarullah has been able to resist extensive military pressure and, contrary to its opponents' expectations, remain in the field.
Perhaps this is why defeating Ansarullah, despite the adversary's military superiority, has become an unattainable goal. In Yemen's mountains, power is not measured solely by the number of aircraft and the volume of weapons; sometimes the capacity to endure, knowledge of the land and refusal to surrender to pressure change the equation of war. This is the reality that explains why Yemen, despite years of war and blockade, still stands.
Source: athabat.net
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