The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have dispersed senior leaders and shifted the running of institutions in areas under their control to new locations under tight security in wake of their latest military escalation, Yemeni security sources told Asharq Al-Awsat. The measures include turning major hotels in Sanaa, Hodeidah, Saada and other cities into temporary bases for security and intelligence agencies and civilian institutions, as the group seeks to shield its leadership from possible strikes. The sources revealed that officers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were overseeing the escalation, while Ali Mohammad Rezaei, the so-called Iranian ambassador to the Houthis, was personally supervising an operations room directing military and security affairs in Houthi-held areas. Security and intelligence officials, ministers and heads of state bodies in the Houthis’ internationally unrecognized government have been ordered to move into hotels and continue working from there, the sources said. They said the aim was to place senior figures among civilians and hotel guests, making them harder to target. The Revolutionary Guards have also set up a dedicated operations room to track developments on the ground and coordinate the media campaign accompanying the escalation, according to the sources. That campaign includes promoting claims of a blockade and demands for the payment of government employees’ salaries, in what the sources described as an attempt to cast the escalation as driven by domestic grievances. Its main purpose, however, was to support Tehran in its confrontation with the United States, the sources said. Iranian officers expect the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen to respond by targeting Houthi military, security and government leaders, as it did during earlier rounds of conflict, they added. That expectation has prompted the group to tighten precautions around its senior figures. Hotels turned into hideouts A number of Houthi leaders have been moved into hotels in major cities under the group’s control, with trusted intelligence operatives appointed as links between them and the institutions they oversee, the sources said. Those operatives relay orders and requests to lower-ranking officials in government institutions and facilities, while supplying senior leaders with information and other needs at their new locations. Second-tier officials have meanwhile been left to handle day-to-day operations. The changes have coincided with the disappearance from public view of several top Houthi figures, who have moved to more secure locations, the sources said. The group has also tightened security at hotels, linking some to networks operated by intelligence and police agencies under its control to monitor guests, verify identities and prevent infiltration. Saada sealed off Several of the Houthis’ most senior leaders have moved to Saada, the group’s main stronghold in northern Yemen, the sources said. They described the province as effectively sealed off, with entry and exit subject to tight checks. The province contains fortified Houthi sites beneath mountains that are used as shelters, military command centers and weapons storage facilities, the sources said. Similar sites have also been developed elsewhere. Houthi officials and supervisors running government institutions under the group’s control have been instructed by Revolutionary Guards personnel to move into hotels in major cities. Military commanders, by contrast, have been told to remain in trenches and fortified positions prepared across several areas. The Houthis have also built a network of tunnels and hardened sites for shelter and command operations, particularly in Ibb, Hajjah and Hodeidah provinces, according to the sources. The precautions draw on the group’s experience during its attacks on shipping in the southern Red Sea from late 2023 through the first quarter of 2025. During that period, military and security leaders moved into secret locations and residences away from visible centers of activity, helping several senior figures avoid being hit during US and Israeli strikes, the sources said. Those precautions, however, did not prevent a secret meeting of the Houthi government from being struck, killing the head of government and nine ministers, according to the sources. The group’s chief of staff was also targeted despite efforts by senior leaders to conceal their whereabouts. Launch sites dispersed At the same time, Iranian officers have overseen the establishment of additional positions near front lines and selected multiple sites for launching missiles and drones, the sources said. The move is designed to prevent the Houthis from relying on a single launch point and to make the sites harder to detect and destroy. Launch positions have been spread across Ibb, Taiz and Al-Bayda provinces, a pattern that was evident during the heavy missile attack on Mokha port, according to the sources. The Houthis fired around 20 missiles from areas in Ibb province, some of which fell on the province’s outskirts, they said. The group also used areas under its control in rural Taiz to fire further volleys of missiles and drones.
