The US Treasury Department said Thursday it is designating members of a smuggling network that helps fund Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force and Houthis rebels in Yemen.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the network led by Iran-based Houthi financier Sa’id al-Jamal generates tens of millions of dollars in revenue from the sale of commodities, like Iranian petroleum, which is then directed to the Houthis in Yemen.

"This network’s financial support enables the Houthis’ deplorable attacks threatening civilian and critical infrastructure in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. These attacks undermine efforts to bring the conflict to an end and, most tragically, starve tens of millions of innocent civilians," its director Andrea M. Gacki said in a statement.

Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sana’a.

The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains./aa