A young Yemeni man who describes himself as a "pirate" has created a significant buzz on social media after posting a video of himself holding the Yemeni flag aboard a container ship seized by the Houthis in the Red Sea. Rashid Al-Haddad, 19 years old, has attracted the attention of thousands online despite the absence of any evidence regarding his involvement in the hijacking of the ships. In a video showing him on board the container ship Galaxy Leader, Al-Haddad wrote: "The king of the pirates of the Red Sea has arrived... Palestine is free."
Rashid Al-Haddad is an ordinary Yemeni youth with no ties to any political group, who gained fame through his personal videos. His followers and many foreign newspapers have dubbed him "the handsome Houthi."
The video, in which Rashid appears with a light beard wearing a khaki outfit, brown coat, and military belt, has garnered over 36,000 views, with one user commenting, "I fell in love with the star pirate."
The young man has appeared in other videos on X and TikTok aboard a small boat next to the ship, with one of those videos receiving over 60,000 views.
Rashid told Reuters while speaking from Yemen, "They compared me to a Hollywood actor. I really don’t care about these tweets at all. I said we need to focus on the Palestinian cause."
