The rapid defeats dealt to Houthi militias by legitimate forces on the battlefronts of the West Coast, Saada and Hajjah have prompted the group's leaders to send pro-insurgent police officers in Sanaa to the front lines.
This move is aimed at filling the growing shortage in rebel fighters who have received orders not to contact their families in addition to threats they would be liquidated if they become deserters.
According to medical and military sources in Sanaa, dozens of recruits and soldiers have become human shields. Some of them have had self-inflicted injuries caused by fire shots to return home, especially those who had joined the battle to receive monthly salaries or military ranks.
Houthis have also lured civil servants, adolescents and the unemployed to the battlefronts by deluding them to participate in indoctrination seminars, civilians in Sanaa told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Houthi officials in the insurgency’s ministry of interior ordered all security units and police forces to send their members to the fronts of the West Coast, Saada, and Nahm, anti-militia security sources in Sanaa said.
They explained to the newspaper that the officials threatened to arrest whoever refuses to comply with their orders.
Two police officers, who have been suspended from the insurgency, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Houthi security officials had informed all the police and security units, including traffic police, facility protection police and the rescue police, about the importance of sending their elements to the battle fronts.
A militia leader sent dozens of night guards in the neighborhoods of the capital to the fronts without informing them, a security source told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The leader had informed the guards that they will participate in the indoctrination seminars enforced by the Houthis on employees in areas that they control.
