effectively ending israel's 18-year occupation of part of that country in the year 2000. while the houthis, another shiite iran backed militant group which controls parts of yemen following a long and bloody civil war, have carried out more than two dozen attacks on commercial ships in the red sea. which they claim they're doing to punish israel's western lies in protest of israel's military operation in gaza. yesterday, we saw a dramatic escalation, as the u.s. and the uk launched military strikes against houthi rebels in yemen, in response to that red sea blockade. now, the houthis are vowing to retaliate. a lot of americans have probably never heard of these groups. they just sound like a bunch of entities whose names start with h, but if our government is going to drop bombs on folks, maybe we as citizens should understand why, why are they exactly, and why do they have an issue with us? here to help answer these questions is brian, senior vice