It is the new frontline of a bitter proxy war between the US and Iran, and is already holding one the world’s most important shipping routes to ransom. With the demise of Hamas and Hezbollah, Yemen’s Ansarallah – better known as the Houthis – now represent Tehran’s last effective weapon against President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure “ policy.

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khatemei defiantly denied that the Houthis were a proxy following last weekend’s US air strikes. But intelligence from opposition group PMOI-MEK/NCRI inside Iran shows this is far from true. Considered a motley militia until Yemen’s 2014 Civil War, Houthis now command a sophisticated arsenal of hypersonic anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles, aerial and martime Kamikaze drones and guidance systems.

Those missiles are made by Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organisation – owned by the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which also offers training.

Weapons are delivered to Persian Gulf countries by sea to be transported overland to Yemen.

One method is to hide them in giant GPS-transmitting ship fenders which are cast adrift on the high seas, intercepted by other vessels and taken to their destination.

This comprehensive programme of technical and military assistance is coordinated by IRGC Brigadier General Abdolreza Shahlai.

A protege of Iran’s architect of regional malfeasance Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by Trump in 2020, 65-year-old Gen Shahlai was responsible for terror attacks against US forces in Iraq, coordinated a thwarted plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington Adel Al-Jubeir and currently has a £12m bounty on his head.

Having narrowly missed being killed by Trump in 2020, his war is personal.

Based at Quds Force headquarters in Tehran, Gen Shahlai is supported by a band of bandit brigadiers including Brigadier General Ismail Qaani, commander-in-chief of the IRGC Quds force, and his deputy, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Fallahzadeh, who formerly commanded IRGC forces in Syria.

A more junior IRGC officer, Abu Fatemeh, is in charge of coordinating logistics.

General policy in Yemen is set by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, but every decision requires authorisation by Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

And the stakes are high.

Traditionally, around 12% of global trade – worth $1 trillion per year – steams through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the quickest maritime route connecting Europe and Asia.

With 145 attacks on merchant vessels since November 2023, 70% of those shipments are now detouring around southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, adding some 3,500 nautical miles and 10 days travel time in the biggest disruption to international trade since the global pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, Iran allies China and Russia are exempt from attacks, offering Beijing a massive trading advantage.

“Iran needs more than ever to demonstrate its power to the US and so will increase the Houthis’ usefulness,” said Megan Sutcliffe, of the Sibylline strategic risk group.

But their days may be numbered.

Unlike President Joe Biden, who limited US airstrikes to military installations, Trump has vowed to ​”completely annihilate” the terror group, which has also fired rockets towards Israel.

​Ms Sutcliffe added: “Trump will be conducting a campaign of strikes​; something that is sustained​ without a definite end​.”

Shahin Gobadi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, told The Sun: “The mullahs’ regime is the head of the snake of war and crisis in the region.

“It has survived on pervasive repression of the Iranian people and export of crises, belligerence, and terrorism.

“Exporting terrorism, extremism, and belligerence is part of the clerical regime’s DNA, and as long as it is in power, the region will not see peace and tranquility.”

He added: “The Iranian people’s desire and the only solution to the Iranian crisis is the regime’s overthrow by the Iranian people.

“But overthrowing the regime does not happen by itself, and an organised resistance and a force on the ground are the necessary elements to do the job.”