By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-08-29

ADEN -- Two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) weapon experts who were operating out of a secret underground tunnel in a Houthi-controlled port in Yemen drowned in recent heavy rains.

The two men lost their lives inside a tunnel carved out by the Iran-backed Houthis in the al-Hodeidah province port of al-Salif after it was flooded during torrential rains, local media outlets reported August 9.

The Houthis reportedly recovered the bodies from the tunnel, which extends more than 50 meters underground in the port's al-Jabana area.

In addition to conclusively revealing the presence of IRGC weapon experts in a Houthi-controlled part of Yemen, the incident drew attention to the Houthis' underground operations, analysts said.

And they showed how deeply the Iranian regime has invested in its Yemeni proxy to pursue its regional agenda and ambitions, even as the Iranian people suffer the consequences of these actions, which further cement Iran's pariah status.

The carving out of underground tunnels and bunkers to use as storage areas for weapons and as barracks for military experts is a strategy that links the Houthis to other Iranian proxies, including Lebanese Hizbullah.

"The Houthis are adopting the same methodology that Iran and Hizbullah have adopted with regard to digging bunkers," Yemeni Deputy Minister of Justice Faisal al-Majeedi told Pishtaz.

"Hizbullah and the Houthis have underground bunkers," al-Majeedi said, adding that the Houthis have many in Sanaa, al-Hodeidah and in other areas they control.

"Despite the damage to the infrastructure caused by the digging of bunkers, the Houthis still use them to store weapons and logistical materials, draw up war plans and smuggle drugs," he said.

They also use these underground "military cities" to train their fighters and to conceal their own leaders as well as experts from the IRGC and Lebanese Hizbullah, he added.

A threat to civilians

Infrastructure in al-Hodeidah has been weakened as tunnels beneath it sink or collapse amid heavy rainfall, al-Majeedi said.

Floodwater has swept away "many mines planted by the Iranian militias," he added, which puts civilians in these areas at risk.

Even without the torrential rains, the presence of IRGC operatives and the underground storage of weapons are dangerous to the civilian population.

"These bunkers and tunnels are used as bases to launch attacks, train individuals and to house workshops for the assembly and manufacture of drones," political analyst Faisal Ahmed told Pishtaz.

"They are a threat to the lives and stability of Yemenis, in addition to destabilizing the region's security and threatening international trade in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb strait," Ahmed said.