Giants Brigades lead southern Yemen fightback against the Houthis

On October 5, groups linked to the former Southern Transitional Council (STC), including the powerful Southern Giants Brigades, and troops of the internationally recognised government of Yemen, launched a major offensive against the Houthis near the strategically important Bab al-Mandeb strait.

It was part of a nationwide military campaign aimed at driving the Houthis, an armed group also known as Ansar Allah or Supporters of God, out of territories under their control, including the vital coastline region seized by the Iran-linked group in September.

By Monday afternoon, the pro-government force, led by the Giants Brigade, said they had managed to cut off the main road linking the Red Sea port city of Mocha with the Bab al-Mandeb, a vital waterway for energy supplies.

This effectively gave the anti-Houthi forces one of their first major military gains in years and followed an announcement by Rashid al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), of a major offensive against the Iran-backed group. It also highlighted the effectiveness of anti-Houthi forces – which include units with contrasting political goals – when working together.

This has seen STC-affiliated groups, some of whom seek independence for the south, ally with pro-government national forces against the Houthis.

The collaboration between these two factions follows a high-profile conflict in southern Yemen in January, when Saudi-aligned Yemeni government forces defeated the United Arab Emirates-backed STC, resulting in the relative centralisation of anti-Houthi forces.

Among the leading formations in the recent government offensive led by this alliance are the Giants Brigades, which have their roots in the southern separatist movement.

The force is commanded by Abd al-Rahman Abu Zaraa al-Muharrami, a Salafi who studied at the ultraconservative Dammaj religious school in the northern governorate of Saada.

Formed largely by Salafi fighters during the battle against the Houthis in the southern city of Aden in the first half of 2015, the Giants Brigades have become one of Yemen’s most formidable military forces during the war.

The brigades, believed to have been armed, trained and funded by the UAE, rose to prominence in 2017, leading an offensive that captured large swaths of Yemen’s western coast from the Houthis. The advance was eventually halted on the outskirts of the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah following the United Nations-brokered Stockholm Agreement in late 2018.

In January 2022, the Giants Brigades achieved another major victory against the Houthis, seizing three districts in the southern governorate of Shabwa and advancing deeper into neighbouring Marib. Their offensive came to a halt after the Houthis launched an attack on Abu Dhabi on January 17, 2022.

Al-Muharrami had no known military background before the war, which began with the Houthis’ capture of Sanaa in September 2014, and the group has largely stayed out of infighting between anti-Houthi forces.

He joined Yemen’s eight-member PLC in April 2022, around the time his forces adopted the name Southern Giants Brigades, signalling their growing southern political identity. The formation later joined the STC, further strengthening the brigades’ ties with the southern separatist movement.

When STC forces collapsed following the Yemeni government offensive in January, al-Muharrami flew to Riyadh and voiced support for the Saudi-led initiative to unify southern forces.

The Giants Brigades’ involvement in the war against the Houthis is now seen as a test of its political allegiance, with some observers arguing that it remains fundamentally a separatist force.

Some believe that the Giants Brigades’ previous advances against the Houthis into Hodeidah suggest that the group does not necessarily have a separatist agenda.

They have also pointed to the group’s spearheading of the latest military offensive against the Houthis beyond southern Yemen, where many former STC units have remained confined, as another sign of its stronger commitment to national unity.

Fathi bin Lazraq, editor of the Aden Al-Ghad newspaper and an outspoken critic of southern separatists, believes that the Giants Brigades would be willing to fight the Houthis anywhere in Yemen.

“These forces are part of the contingent that has been fighting the Houthis since 2015, having been formed in Yemen following the collapse of the Yemeni army,” he told Al Jazeera. “They engage the Houthis from military, political, civil and religious standpoints.”

Bin Lazraq described the Giants Brigades as a powerful fighting force and pointed to their previous operations in northern areas, including Hodeidah and Marib. He also believes that the word “Southern” in their name did not necessarily mean they supported secession or would refuse to fight beyond the borders of the formerly independent South Yemen state.

But unlike Homeland Shield Forces, which were established by PLC head al-Alimi in January 2023 and placed under his direct command, making their allegiance to the internationally recognised government clear, the Giants Brigades operate in a more grey area.

“They do not fight as ‘Southern forces’ per se, but rather as part of the legitimate government forces backed by the [Saudi-led] coalition,” bin Lazraq said. “While they operate under the banner of southern forces, they do not claim to be separatist, or anything of the sort, given that they have fought in Hodeidah and Marib.”

The Giants Brigades, and even more hardline separatist STC-affiliated forces, had come to recognise the dangers posed by the Houthis and the need to ally with government forces to fight the group.

“Everyone believes that the Houthis pose a threat: if we do not go to them, they will come to us. The Giants Brigades and other forces are all united in a single battle to confront the Houthis,” he said.

But accusations that the Giants Brigades have southern separatist aspirations are also not unwarranted. The group’s current offensive is focused on areas within the borders of the former South Yemen entity, including the Bab al-Mandeb strait.

Some of their fighters taking part in the offensive around Bab al-Mandeb have raised the former South Yemen flag, and embedded journalists have also shared footage showing soldiers expressing southern separatist sentiments.

STC President Aidarous al-Zubaidi, who has not appeared publicly since the defeat of his forces in January, weighed into the debate by offering condolences for fighters killed in the offensive, describing them as martyrs, and criticising what he says is others taking credit for victories by southern forces.

“The South will not allow the victories of its armed forces to be stolen under slogans that do not reflect its reality,” al-Zubaidi said on X.

Anwar al-Tamimi, a spokesperson for the STC, told Al Jazeera that the participation of southern forces in the campaign was focused on capturing and securing the Bab al-Mandeb and surrounding areas, which separatists consider part of the state they seek to restore.

“The participation of southern forces is aimed at protecting and securing the south’s borders, a principle deeply rooted in southern military doctrine and central to the southern cause. Bab al-Mandeb falls within the territory of the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen,” he said.

Al-Tamimi did not rule out the possibility of southern forces advancing deeper into northern Yemen to secure their gains and borders, following similar military operations in the north.

The Giants Brigades remained loyal to the southern independence movement despite their participation in the wider anti-Houthi offensive.

“The Giants Brigades are southern brigades driven by a southern combat ethos, alongside elements of Salafist ideas,” al-Tamimi told Al Jazeera.

“This serves to reinforce the southern national project rather than bypass it. The Giants Brigades are a southern force; they carry the flag and banner of the south, and there is no issue with that. They are part of the southern armed forces – and a very active part at that.”