The al-Qaeda leader Aref Mujalli appeared alongside a number of leaders of the Iran-backed terrorist Houthi militia, in the capital, Sanaa, in a tribute ceremony held for him in the presence of the Prime Minister of the Houthi coup government.

In the honoring ceremony, the Houthi militia awarded a shield (the Arab Tribe Medal) to the al-Qaeda leader Aref Mujalli, in appreciation of his role in mobilizing many fighters from the organization of al-Qaeda and bringing them into the ranks of the Houthi militia, according to informed sources.

This honoring comes as an extension of the process of demarcation between the Iranian-backed Houthi militia and the al-Qaeda, and the extent to which the Houthi militia relies heavily on the terrorist Arif Mujalli to deepen the rapprochement with the al-Qaeda, to the extent that the Houthi militia recently appointed him as a county agent for Sanaa Governorate.

And Aref Mujalli hails from Arhab, north of Sanaa, and has a marriage relationship with Fawaz al-Rubaie, one of the prominent leaders of al-Qaeda in Yemen and the main suspects in the bombing of the US destroyer (USS Cole), where Fawaz Al-Rubaie one was killed in 2006.

And the Yemeni Ministry of Interior had allocated in February 2006 a financial reward of five million riyals for anyone who provides confirmed information that leads to the arrest of twenty-three escapees from the Political Security prison in Sana’a, who are members of the al-Qaeda, including the leader Aref Saleh Ali Mujalli.

And earlier, tribal sources revealed the killing of a leader linked to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, by government forces' fire in Al-Bayda Governorate.

And the sources reported that the leader of the al-Qaeda, nicknamed "Abu Obeida al-Rriyami", was killed while participating in the fighting within the ranks of the Houthi militia in battles in the al-Baydha Directorate. This reflects the extent of coordination between the Houthis and terrorist organizations. And a report submitted by the Yemeni government to the UN Security Council, last March, had provided confirmed information and intelligence facts about the close relationship between the Houthi militias and both al-Qaeda and ISIS as an extension of the same relationship between Iran and those terrorist organizations.

And the report clarified the way in which these militias exploit their relationship with terrorist organizations to practice more terrorism against the Yemeni people.

The report also exposes the falseness of the allegations of these militias that are trying to stigmatize all those who stand against them from the Yemeni people and the National Army forces on charges of belonging to the al-Qaeda and ISIS, and they are the allegations that the militias trying to promote them more after the failure of their aggression against Marib and the accompanying criminal and terrorist acts that affected civilians and neighborhoods Residential.

And the report added: "After the Houthi militia occupied the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, and seized all the information available in the Political and National Security apparatus, the Houthi militias manipulated that information and exploited it to build a close relationship with both Al-Qaeda and ISIS. And the relations between the militias and these terrorist organizations have been characterized by cooperation in various fields, including security and intelligence cooperation, providing a safe haven for many members of these terrorist organizations, coordinating combat operations against the legitimate forces, enabling terrorist organizations to build and fortify their strongholds and refraining from engaging in real confrontations against them."

The report explained how the Houthi militia released (252) terrorist prisoners who were in the prisons of the Political Security and National Security agencies in Sana'a and other Governorates, most notably the terrorist Jamal Muhammad Al-Badawi, one of the most prominent masterminds of the bombing of the US destroyer (USS Cole), who was released by militias of the Houthi in the year 2018.