By Mohamed al-Samei
SANAA (AA) – The Yemeni army on Thursday announced the arrest of a Houthi rebel leader and three companions in the southern Dhale province.
“Hussein al-Houthi, the Houthi commander for the [central] Ibb province, along with three companions, was captured Wednesday in Dhale, ” according to an unnamed military source quoted in an army statement.
Hussein, who is reported to be close to Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, “is now being interrogated by the Yemeni army”, the same source asserted.
“Army intelligence tracked him down and surveilled him before eventually capturing him near a positon [in Dhale] held by the army’s 30th Brigade,” the source added.
The Houthis, for their part, have yet to comment on the army’s assertions.
Yemen has remained dogged by violence and chaos since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.
The conflict escalated one year later after Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen's Saudi-backed government.
The Saudi-led coalition continues to maintain a crippling economic blockade on the impoverished country, aggravating an already-dire humanitarian crisis there.
Even before the current conflict, Yemen had been considered one of the Arab world’s poorest nations.
