2 Houthi commanders given terrorist designation by US

Aya Ezz

An office affiliated to the US Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on two senior commanders of the Houthi militia.

The sanctions, included in two separate resolutions, designated Houthi commander Youssef al-Medani as an international terrorist who participated in breaching the truce in the western port city of Hudaydah.

The office also imposed sanctions on Houthi commander Mohamed al-Ghamari, considering him a threat to peace in Yemen. Al-Ghamari, it said, commanded attacks on Marib city.

Infrastructure destroyer

Al-Ghamari is the chief of staff of the Houthi militia. He is the wanted person no. 16 on the list of the Legitimacy Coalition.

He was raised in the western Yemeni province of Hajjah. He aided Houthi leader Abdel Malak al-Houthi when he was wanted and hiding in the northern Yemeni city of Saada, a stronghold of the Houthi militia.

Al-Ghamari worked as a Houthi supervisor in Hajjah in the past. He was then promoted to field commander. He was then appointed as the security chief in Yemeni capital Sana’a. He studied at the Hussein Badreddine al-Houthi Institute in 2003.

Al-Ghamari travelled to southern Lebanon in 2012, where he was given military training by officers from the Hezbollah militia, according to the United Nations.

He commanded the latest brutal Houthi attack on Marib. The attack made the humanitarian crisis in the city worse, the US Department of the Treasury said.

Al-Ghamari succeeded Abdel Khaliq al-Houthi, a brother of Houthi leader Abdel Malak al-Houthi, as a commander of the Marib front.