Houthi Drone Warfare Architect Killed After Months of Secrecy
CENTCOM is reported to have targeted the Houthi drone commander during strikes on sensitive sites in March 2025.
On Christmas Eve, the Houthis quietly announced the burial schedule of a key commander in their so-called Drone Air Force, Major General Zakaria Abdullah Yahya Hajar. The ceremony is set for 9:00 a.m. local time on December 25, Christmas Day, in Sana’a at Al Saleh Mosque, which the group has renamed Al Sha‘b Mosque. Hajar, in his early forties, known within the movement by the aliases Hajer and Abu Yahya, hailed from the Rahban area in Sa‘dah governorate.
Another key Houthi military commander announced killed-in-action at the same time was Mohammed al-Haifi, the chief of staff of the missile group, along with several missile and drone experts who are all scheduled to be buried on the same day; however, it remains unclear whether they were killed in a single strike or in separate attacks.
Two senior Yemeni officers confirmed to Basha Report that Hajar became the central figure in the Houthis’ drone program after its founding commander, Major General Ahmed Al Hazmi, was announced by the Houthis to have been killed on an unknown date in August 2023.
This individual may be the figure referenced by the former U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz in the now notorious Signalnate leak concerning Yemen, in which he wrote, “Typing too fast. The first target, their top missile guy, we had positive identification of him entering his girlfriend’s building, which has now collapsed.”