US Energy Department engineer arrested over alleged support for Houthis

A US Energy Department electrical engineer has been arrested for allegedly supporting Yemen’s Houthis by purchasing materials for homemade explosives and drones and traveling to Yemen, US local media reported on Friday.

“Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, 51, of Richland, Washington, was arrested Thursday and is due to make his first court appearance Friday,” CBS News reported, citing the Justice Department.

Ellaboudy sought to help the Houthis enhance their communications capabilities and traveled to Yemen last September, CBS News cited the FBI as saying.

“Ellaboudy used a passport issued to him when he was working at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make his way to Oman, then bordering Yemen,” CBS News quoted the Justice Department as saying.

Ellaboudy faces charges under a US law criminalizing the provision of material support to organizations designated as foreign terrorist organizations, a designation that applies to the Houthis.

If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and several provinces in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.