US Energy engineer held for allegedly aiding Houthi rebels with drones
A US Department of Energy electrical engineer has been arrested on charges of providing support to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, including by buying materials used for homemade explosives and drones and travelling to Yemen, the Justice Department said on Thursday.
Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, 51, of Richland, Washington, was arrested on Thursday and is due to make his first court appearance on Friday. He is charged under a US law that makes it a crime to provide material support to a group designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organisation, of which the Houthis are one. Court records do not list an attorney available to speak on his behalf.
The FBI said Ellaboudy aimed to help the Houthis improve their communications capabilities and travelled to Yemen last September. Yemen has seen renewed violence between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces, with hundreds killed and tens of thousands displaced. The conflict began in 2014 when the Iran-backed rebels took over the capital, Sanaa, forcing the country's government into exile in Saudi Arabia.
According to an FBI affidavit, after returning to the United States, Ellaboudy told Customs and Border Protection officials that he was coming back from Oman on a work trip and was part of a US government mission to inspect missile defence systems. Investigators later interviewed his supervisor, who said he had no knowledge of any international travel or of an Energy Department missile inspection programme to which Ellaboudy would have been assigned.
The affidavit also said Ellaboudy was recorded telling FBI informants, who had been brought into the investigation by officials, that he had to be smuggled into and out of Yemen and that he had hoped to reach Sanaa to build connections at the government level. The FBI said he was ultimately unable to get to the capital.
The FBI said investigators began looking into Ellaboudy after learning that he had bought precursor chemicals commonly used in the making of homemade explosive devices, including acetone and sodium bisulfate, as well as drone parts. During the investigation, the FBI said he communicated with multiple informants, including one who claimed to be a Houthi colonel, and provided advice and help on communications equipment.
"These allegations are so deeply disturbing that they almost defy imagination," John Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's National Security Division, said in a statement. The case centres on allegations that Ellaboudy sought to support the Houthis through equipment-related assistance, purchases linked to explosives and drones, and travel to Yemen.
