Yemeni government: Houthi network in Lahij dismantled, trained by IRGC and Hezbollah

Yemen's Interior Ministry, in a press conference on Monday, 12 October 2026, said it had dismantled an 18-member network linked to the Houthis that planned to assassinate security and military commanders and attack the supply lines of the front lines. According to the ministry, the network's members were arrested on 26 September in Lahij province.

Ibrahim Haydan, Yemen's interior minister, said the network's members had been trained under Houthi commanders in tracking, explosives and bomb planting, and that the Houthis had used experts from the Islamic Republic's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon's Hezbollah for this training. He said the training took place in Houthi-controlled areas, including Saada, Dhamar and al-Hawban in Taiz province. Yemen's Interior Ministry has so far not published independent evidence of the IRGC's and Hezbollah's role.

The network's structure and targets

According to Yemen's Interior Ministry, the network had two parts: one group to identify and track security and military commanders and the convoys heading to the front lines, and another for bombings and attacks on officials and supply routes. Its targets were said to be military sites and vital facilities in the provinces of Aden, Lahij and Abyan. According to the ministry, interrogations showed that some members also operated in a "women's team".

Yemen's interior minister said security forces had foiled the Houthis' plan to sow chaos in the liberated areas, and called protecting the home front an essential part of the "Fajr Yemen" operation.

The Houthis, allies of the Islamic Republic

The announcement comes as the Yemen war has in recent weeks spread into Saudi Arabia, where Houthi attacks on the airports of Riyadh and Dammam killed at least 14 people. After those attacks, Abbas Araghchi, the Islamic Republic's foreign minister, offered his Saudi counterpart to mediate; meanwhile, the Yemeni government and the United States have for years accused the IRGC of training and arming the Houthis.

The Yemeni government says the network that was preparing to assassinate its commanders had been trained with the help of experts from the IRGC and Hezbollah.