Tensions within the Houthi intelligence agencies stepped up

Tensions within the security corridors of the Houthis in Sanaa have escalated in recent weeks, as a fierce conflict erupted between the head of the Security and Intelligence Service and the head of the newly formed "Community Police Intelligence Service", led by the nephew of the Houthi leader. Two intelligence sources told Khabar Agency.

The dispute recently intensified between the self-proclaimed brigadier, Abdul Hakim Al-Khaywani, head of the Security and Intelligence Service (SIS), and Ali Hussein Al-Houthi, head of the Community Police Intelligence Service (CPIS), over a power struggle and influence. The sources said.

The Houthis granted Ali Al-Houthi the rank of brigadier in 2018 and appointed him as the Deputy Minister of Interior for the police and security sector, before consolidating in 2022 the positions of commander of the emergency forces in Sanaa and director general of the command and control at the ministry, with extensive powers. In 2024, he established the (CPIS) despite his young age of thirty and lack of qualification for the position and rank.

These rapid appointments were aimed at undermining the influence of the security and intelligence agencies within the Ministry of Interior gradually, especially the influence of Al-Khaywani, who has established direct external relationships with leaders in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah, among others.

The sources said that the conflict between Al-Khaywani and Al-Houthi has exceeded administrative powers to become a struggle for influence and control over sensitive security files, where the two agencies are competing over managing arrests, security surveillance, and prison management, leading to duplication of decisions and hindering some operations.

The sources highlighted that one of the major conflicts is the struggle for the economic empire being built by Al-Khaywani's faction behind the scenes of the kidnappings, where the relatives of the kidnapped individuals are coerced into paying hundreds of thousands of riyals in installments through mediators from Houthi-affiliated leaders to secure the release of their loved ones, with valuable gifts such as lands, clothing, and personal weapons.