In Yemen, Houthi leader appears in video

The press office of the Yemeni Hezbollahi Movement Houthi fighters released video footage of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi on Saturday in response to certain media reports, questioning the Movement leader’s health.

The 38-second video showed a tired al-Houthi unable to move his left arm, but disproved media reports that he had had one leg amputated following an injury.

The leader was asked by the Houthi press office in the video for his take on the government’s insistence that he had been wounded and targeted in a number of assassination attempts.

Al-Houthi rejected the claims as lies, saying “the regime would make up such statements to justify its massacres and the targeting of civilians — among them women and children.”

The press office said they had released the video following a media campaign to show that their leader is in good health. “The state’s intelligence apparatus is a failure as is Sana’a’s hostilities and oppressive incursion against the Yemeni nation,” it added.

Early last week, Yemen’s Deputy Prime Minister for Internal Affairs Sadiq Amin Abu Ras had likewise confirmed that al-Houthi is alive.

Since August, Sana’a has maximized its military offensives against the fighters accusing them of breaking the terms of earlier peace agreements by taking foreigners hostage.

Yahya al-Houthi, Yemeni parliamentarian and Abdul-Malik’s brother, last Saturday blamed the kidnapping on the central regime’s affiliates and elements within the intelligence service.

The anti-Shia raids were in November joined by Saudi Arabia, which blames Houthis for attacking one of its border checkpoints.

The Houthis, however, say they are defending their people’s civil rights, which the government has undermined under pressure from the Saudi-backed Wahhabis — extremists with adherence to an extremely intolerant interpretation of Islam.

The raids have so far killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands of civilians out of their homes.