Yemen’s president announced a major military operation against the Houthis. The group has encircled the city of Taiz despite the counteroffensive.
Yemen’s presidential council chief Rashad al-Alimi announced Sunday the launch of major military operations on all fronts to retake territory held by Iran-backed Houthi fighters, marking the most significant escalation yet in a conflict that reignited last month after years of relative calm. “Today, I announce the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory,” al-Alimi said in a televised address.
The counteroffensive comes even as the Houthis continue advancing on the ground, effectively encircling the government-held city of Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest, after cutting the main road linking it to Aden, the interim capital of the internationally recognized government. Military spokesman Majid al-Nuzaili said government forces had begun what he called a “battle for liberation,” calling on Houthi-aligned fighters to lay down their arms while pledging to protect civilians during the operation. Yemen’s army said 260 Houthi fighters had been killed across 97 operations targeting reinforcements in Taiz and Lahj provinces, though the claim could not be independently verified; experts said the strikes were most likely carried out by Saudi warplanes rather than Yemen’s own air force. There was no immediate confirmation of the offensive from Saudi Arabia, which has backed Yemen’s government and conducted dozens of airstrikes against Houthi positions in recent weeks.
The Houthis launched a rapid offensive down Yemen’s Red Sea coast last month, seizing the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a key global shipping chokepoint, as government forces collapsed in the face of the advance. Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Chatham House think tank, told AFP the Houthis had “achieved the military objective of isolating Taiz from Aden, even if they haven’t fully taken control of it.” Reuters reported that the United States is providing intelligence to support Saudi Arabia’s operations in Yemen, while several regional and European nations are supplying mainly defensive military aid to the kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said the campaign against the Houthis “does not represent an effort to establish a military axis or a sectarian bloc.” The Houthis said separately they struck oil infrastructure in Riyadh again on Sunday, a claim that could not be independently verified.
This report is based on information from Reuters (via WMBD Radio and SRN News), CNN, Dawn, France 24 and Türkiye Today.