The US is considering backing a ground offensive against the Houthis in Yemen, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The report said that plans to back anti-Houthi militias on the ground have been brought to the US by the UAE and that the US is open to the idea but hasn't made a final decision yet.

The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, have controlled Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014 and currently govern an area where 80% of Yemenis live. The US supported a Saudi/UAE-led coalition against the Houthis from 2015 to 2022 in a brutal war that killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis but failed to return former Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.

In 2022, after reaching a ceasefire with the Houthis, the Saudis pushed Hadi aside and replaced him with a Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) that includes several different factions. The PLC's leadership is based in Saudi Arabia, but it is considered Yemen's "internationally recognized" government.

Factions allied with the PLC have fighters on the ground in southern and eastern Yemen, including the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a southern separatist group. Last year, an investigation from the BBC revealed that the UAE had recruited former al-Qaeda members who joined the STC, including Nasser al-Shiba, an STC commander who is a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole.

Previous reporting during the Saudi/UAE war against the Houthis revealed that the coalition had recruited al-Qaeda fighters to join its ranks. US weapons sold to Saudi Arabia and the UAE also ended up in the hands of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Before backing the coalition, the US actually briefly cooperated with the Houthis against AQAP and reportedly shared intelligence with the Zaydi Shia group.

The idea of the new potential ground offensive in Yemen would involve the UAE-backed factions launching an offensive against Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeidah. The Journal report said that Saudi officials have privately said they don't want to be involved in the ground offensives over fears the Houthis could begin targeting oil fields deep inside Saudi Arabia.