Yemen’s internationally recognised government has announced a major military campaign to retake all territory controlled by the Houthis, marking a new escalation in a civil war that had largely been frozen for several years before intensified battles in recent weeks. The announcement by Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), the executive body of the Yemeni government, comes after weeks of heavy fighting and major Houthi advances along Yemen’s Red Sea coast and around the strategically important city of Taiz. On Monday, Yemeni government forces said they had regained control of the Dhubab district on the country’s west coast near the Bab al-Mandab strait after clashes with the Houthis, who denied the announcement.
The fighting between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi Arabia-backed Yemeni government forces has expanded since a fragile 2022 truce collapsed in July, displacing more than 100,000 people since then. Last month, the Houthis launched a rapid offensive that captured about 150km (93 miles) of Red Sea coastline and areas around Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, which is a critical route for international shipping. On Monday, the foreign minister of Yemen’s internationally recognised government requested more support from the international community to defeat the Houthis, saying it’s “in the world’s interest” for the country to be stable.
So what is the latest on the fighting, and what does Yemen’s government hope to achieve? The Yemeni government army said on Monday that 1,747 Houthi fighters had been “neutralised” in 1,122 military operations in the Saada, al-Jawf and Taiz governorates and along Yemen’s western coast. Military spokesman Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili said the attacks targeted artillery and rocket positions, fortifications, supply lines, reinforcements and command centres.
Al-Nuzaili said warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers were involved and 364 military and logistical vehicles had been destroyed or disabled. The casualty and equipment figures have not been independently verified. Elsewhere, the front line in Marib governorate in northeastern Yemen witnessed an escalation in fighting on Monday.
A military source told Al Jazeera that government forces launched an attack on Houthi positions on the Ragwan front in the north of the governorate, coinciding with air strikes targeting Houthi positions and reinforcements. The source said the raids targeted Houthi positions near Mount Helan as well as an arms depot and military reinforcements northwest of Marib. On Sunday, a Saudi-led coalition said its forces carried out 97 attacks against Houthi reinforcements around Taiz and the Tor al-Baha front using warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers.
On the developments in Taiz, Al Jazeera’s Yemen bureau chief, Saeed Thabet, said Houthi operations in the rural areas around the strategic city are based on guerrilla tactics aimed at easing pressure on the coastal front and tightening the blockade of the road to Aden. Al-Alimi said on Sunday that government forces have been ordered to launch military operations to regain Houthi-controlled territory and restore state authority across Yemen. Military sources told the news agency that over the previous 48 hours, the Houthis advanced against government and local forces on strategic hilltops near Taiz, pushing forward along the last remaining road linking the city with Aden on Yemen’s southern coast.
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