Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
In Yemen, Houthi fighters in flip-flops appeared to have added an AI-generated voice to their arsenal already packed with Iranian missiles and drones. Cruising at a lightening speed, Iran-backed Houthi forces on Thursday captured the strategic port city of Mocha on the Red Sea coast after Yemeni troops commanded by Lieutenant General Tareq Saleh withdrew amid intense fighting.
During the offensive, an audio recording resembling Saleh’s voice was reportedly circulated, telling his forces to retreat. Saleh’s National Resistance Forces alleged that the Houthis had cloned his voice using artificial intelligence “to confuse soldiers and weaken their morale”.
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The claim surfaced just as Anthropic revealed that a weapons-development cell in northern Yemen had used its Claude AI model to work on missile-guidance software.
That Houthis used AI to clone Tareq Saleh’s voice to hit the morale of the troops of the National Resistance Forces in Yemen was confirmed by Mocha-based satellite television channel Aljoumhouriya TV. It, however, called it a “failed attempt”.
Mocha lies on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, close to the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints. Its capture is among the Houthis’ biggest territorial gains since a UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely froze the civil war’s front lines. Saleh, a nephew of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, commands the UAE-backed faction of the National Resistance Forces and had made Mocha his principal base. The city’s fall to the Houthis has brought the Iranian proxy closer to the narrow strait connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
The Houthi advance near Bab al-Mandeb raises the threat of disrupting or closing the waterway linking the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. With shipping through the Strait of Hormuz already under threat, disruptions at both chokepoints could squeeze global oil supplies and Asia-Europe trade.
“Heroes, these young men have learnt that the tide can turn in battle. War demands both advance and retreat. Some days favour you and others do not, and there is no shame in that. We have reserves, additional strength and the men to continue fighting,” the audio circulated in the name of Saleh in Arabic said.
HOW THE DISPUTED AI AUDIO SPREAD
The audio emerged while Houthi fighters were advancing through positions held by Saleh’s forces on Yemen’s western coast. It purportedly carried the general’s voice ordering or announcing a withdrawal from Mocha.
The recording was amplified on social media by Yemeni activist Adel al-Hasani, whose account has nearly half-a-million followers, according to an assessment posted by the account Basha Report, an open-source intelligence and conflict-monitoring account on X. Its circulation gave the message substantial reach at a moment when soldiers were under battlefield pressure and conflicting reports were emerging about the state of Mocha’s defences.
“The Houthis fabricated an audio recording using artificial intelligence and attributed it to Major General Staff Tareq Saleh in a failed attempt to mislead public opinion and affect morale,” Aljoumhouriya TV, Mocha-based satellite television channel, posted on X.
The alleged audio operation was reportedly accompanied by another psychological tactic. At around 2 am on September 10, Houthi forces allegedly sent messages to soldiers on the western coast offering amnesty to those who surrendered their weapons, turned themselves in and returned home, according to Basha Report.
Together, the audio and messages appeared designed to deceive the government-aligned troops that their resistance was collapsing and that withdrawal or surrender was their safest option. However, neither the messages nor their reported effect on troops has been independently verified.
SALEH’S FORCES CALL IT AN AI FABRICATION
The National Resistance’s military media subsequently accused the Houthis of making the audio clip attributed to Saleh, which the Aljoumhouriya TV called, “a failed attempt to mislead public opinion and affect morale.”
The purported AI-cloned Arabic voice, attributed to Saleh, said, “Battle has its advances and retreats, and there is no shame in that. We have reserves, strength and men.”
“After assessing the situation, and following betrayal from within, the failure of our allies and heavy losses suffered for the homeland and the Republic, all units must withdraw from Mocha so that the enemy can be targeted in open terrain… I repeat, all units must withdraw to Mocha so that the enemy can be targeted in open terrain,” the recording added.
Saleh’s media arm said his genuine statements and positions would be released only through official National Resistance military channels. Anything attributed to the commander outside those channels, it warned, should be treated as unauthenticated.
The alleged audio recording could very well be a psychological-warfare tactic intended to spread confusion and shatter morale, as alleged by Aljoumhouriya TV. By imitating their commander’s voice, the Houthis allegedly sought to persuade Saleh’s troops to abandon their positions.
HOUTHIS AND THE CLAUDE CONNECTION
The allegation of the audio emerged alongside separate evidence that actors in Houthi-controlled northern Yemen were experimenting with advanced artificial intelligence.
The Houthis, who have been seen in flip-flops in videos emerging from the frontline, might also have attempted to use Claude, Anthropic’s AI chatbot, to develop software for guided missiles, according to a threat intelligence report published by the company. The 154-page report, published on Thursday, detailed how governments and non-government groups used Anthropic’s powerful AI models for warfare.
It said Houthis used Claude Code to work on guidance, navigation and control software for a guided rocket and other missile programmes. These involved a guided rocket, a multi-stage ballistic missile with a stated range exceeding 2,000 kilometres and an R2000 missile family that included a hypersonic-glide variant.
Though Anthropic didn’t name the Houthis, details in the report pointed to the Yemeni Shia outfit.
The fall of Mocha shows how fighters in flip-flops can combine an old-fashioned ground offensive with digital warfare to sow panic and confusion among better-equipped forces, and bring them down.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
