Yemen's Giants Brigades Open New Front Against Houthis in the South

On October 5, groups affiliated with the former Southern Transitional Council (STC), including the Southern Giants Brigades, together with the military of Yemen's internationally recognized government, launched a major offensive against the Houthis near the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait.

It is part of a nationwide military campaign aimed at pushing the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, out of territory they control, including a key coastal area the Iran-backed group seized in September.

By Monday afternoon, government-aligned forces led by the Giants Brigades claimed to have cut the main road linking the Red Sea port city of Mocha with Bab al-Mandeb, a vital shipping route for energy supplies.

The gain is seen as one of the first major military successes in years for the anti-Houthi forces, following the announcement by Rashid al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), of a large campaign against the Iran-backed group. It also demonstrated the effectiveness of the anti-Houthi forces — made up of units with differing political goals — when they coordinate.

That has led STC-affiliated groups, some of which seek independence for the south, to ally with national forces backing the government against the Houthis.

The cooperation between the two sides follows fierce conflict in southern Yemen in January, when Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces defeated the UAE-backed STC, leading to a relative concentration of anti-Houthi forces.

Among the main units in the coalition's recent campaign is the Giants Brigades, which has its roots in the southern separatist movement.

The force is led by Abd al-Rahman Abu Zaraa al-Muharrami, a Salafi who studied at the hardline religious school in Dammaj in the northern Saada province.

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 has become one of Yemen's most formidable military forces in the war.

The brigade, reportedly equipped, trained and funded by the UAE, rose to prominence from 2017 when it led an offensive that seized large areas of Yemen's western coast from the Houthis. The advance was eventually stopped on the outskirts of the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah after the UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement in late 2018.

In January 2022, the Giants Brigades won another major victory over the Houthis, capturing three districts in the southern province of Shabwa and advancing deep into neighboring Marib province. Their offensive halted after the Houthis launched an attack on Abu Dhabi on January 17, 2022.

Al-Muharrami had no military background before the war, which began when the Houthis seized Sanaa in September 2014, and his group largely stayed out of internal conflicts among anti-Houthi forces.

He joined Yemen's eight-member PLC in April 2022, around the time his force took the name Southern Giants Brigades, reflecting an increasingly clear southern political identity. The unit later joined the STC, further cementing ties with the southern separatist movement.

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

The Giants Brigades' participation in the anti-Houthi war is now seen as a test of the group's political loyalty, with some observers arguing it remains fundamentally a separatist force.

Some believe the Giants Brigades' earlier offensives into Hodeidah show the group does not necessarily have a separatist agenda.

They also point to the group leading the latest military campaign against the Houthis beyond southern Yemen, where many former STC units remain confined, as a sign of a stronger commitment to national unity.

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

"These forces are part of the army that has fought the Houthis since 2015, formed in Yemen after the Yemeni army collapsed," he told Al Jazeera. "They confront the Houthis militarily, politically, civily and religiously."

Bin Lazraq described the Giants Brigades as a strong fighting force and pointed to their previous campaigns in the north, including Hodeidah and Marib. He also believes the word "Southern" in the name does not necessarily mean they support secession or refuse to fight outside the borders of the formerly independent South Yemen state.

But unlike the Nation Shield Forces, established by PLC Chairman al-Alimi in January 2023 and placed under his direct command, making loyalty to the internationally recognized government clear, the Giants Brigades operate in a greyer area.

"They do not fight as a 'southern force' in the true sense, but as part of the legitimate government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition," bin Lazraq said. "Even though they operate under the banner of the southern forces, they do not declare secession or anything like that, because they have fought in Hodeidah and Marib."

The Giants Brigades, and even the harder-line STC-affiliated forces, have recognized the danger posed by the Houthis and the need to ally with government forces to fight them.

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

However, accusations that the Giants Brigades harbor southern separatist ambitions are not unfounded. The group's current campaign focuses on areas within the borders of the former South Yemen entity, including the Bab al-Mandeb strait.

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

STC Chairman Aidarous al-Zubaidi, who has not appeared publicly since his forces' defeat in January, joined the debate by sending condolences to fighters killed in the campaign, calling them martyrs, and criticizing what he said were others taking credit for the southern forces' victory.

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

Anwar al-Tamimi, an STC spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the southern forces' participation in the campaign focuses on capturing and securing Bab al-Mandeb and surrounding areas, which the separatists consider part of the territory of the state they want to restore.

"The participation of the southern forces aims to protect and secure the southern border, a principle deeply rooted in southern military doctrine and central to the southern cause. Bab al-Mandeb is 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 protect gains and borders, after similar military campaigns in the north.

The Giants Brigades remain loyal to the southern independence movement despite taking part in the broader anti-Houthi campaign.

"The Giants Brigades are southern brigades driven by the southern fighting spirit, along with Salafi ideological elements," al-Tamimi told Al Jazeera.

"This reinforces the southern national project rather than deviating from it. The Giants Brigades are a southern force; they carry the flag and banner of the south, and there is no problem with that. They are part of the southern armed forces — and a very active part."