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Houthis Advance to Within 50 Miles of Aden, Closest Since 2015

The Houthi advance has taken Al-Maqatirah, with fighting near Tur al-Bahah, about 80 km from Aden. Our timeline shows the stakes for Taiz and Bab el-Mandeb.

ByPeter
View from orbit of storm clouds over Yemen's southwestern coast near the Bab al-Mandab Strait
Storm clouds over Yemen's southwestern coast near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, photographed from the International Space Station during Expedition 59 in 2019. Photo: NASA, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

ADEN, Yemen, Nov. 4, 2026 — Yemen’s Houthi movement has pushed to within about 80 kilometers (50 miles) of Aden, the temporary capital of the internationally recognized government, four military sources told Reuters on Monday. That is the closest the group has come to the city since the early months of the war in 2015, when Houthi fighters briefly entered Aden before being driven out, Al-Monitor reported, carrying the Reuters dispatch.

The sources said the Houthis began an assault on government positions in Al-Maqatirah district, in Lahj province, three days earlier and now hold the whole district. On Monday, fighting was under way at a military camp at the entrance to Tur al-Bahah district, one of the main approaches to Aden. Yemen’s information minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Houthi official, Hamid Rizq, posted a video he said showed the group’s fighters entering Souq al-Rabouh in Maqatirah; Reuters said it could not immediately verify it.

Why this corner of Lahj matters

Al-Maqatirah is mountainous ground overlooking the road between Taiz and Aden. Throughout the war, that route has been the last remaining link between government-held territory and Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city. Taiz has been encircled since early October, when the Houthis cut its main road south. The siege has displaced more than 100,000 people and caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine, according to the military sources’ account in Reuters.

The same sources said the advance gives the Houthis a chance to outflank government forces on the mountain range overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Government troops had pushed Houthi fighters out of that area only weeks ago, during the government offensive we covered in early October.

| Point on the map | Distance or detail | Source | |—|—|—| | Tur al-Bahah camp to Aden | About 80 km | Reuters military sources | | Tur al-Bahah camp to Lahj provincial capital | About 50 km | Reuters military sources | | Bab el-Mandeb at its narrowest | 18 miles wide, with two 2-mile-wide tanker channels | U.S. Energy Information Administration | | Oil through Bab el-Mandeb, 2018 | About 6.2 million barrels per day | U.S. Energy Information Administration |

Strikes in both directions

Attacks on Aden itself have grown in recent weeks. The Houthis struck Aden airport on Oct. 28 after warning people to evacuate, and the presidential palace was hit earlier in October. Saudi Arabia, which backs the government, answered the latest push with strikes on several Houthi-held areas. Ansar Allah, the movement’s formal name, said the strikes killed 10 people and injured dozens, and two of them reportedly hit the University of Hodeidah’s medical school, Democracy Now! reported. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted ballistic missiles and a drone fired toward southern Saudi Arabia.

The humanitarian picture is grim. About three-quarters of Yemeni households cannot meet their basic daily food needs, according to the U.N., and the governor of Taiz declared a famine last week.

Timeline: the road to Aden

  • 2014: The Houthis drive the government out of Sanaa.
  • March 2015: A Saudi-led coalition intervenes after Houthi forces advance south toward Aden.
  • April 14, 2015: U.N. Security Council Resolution 2216 demands that the Houthis withdraw from areas they seized.
  • 2022: A U.N.-brokered truce largely halts major attacks.
  • 2023 onward: The Houthis launch hundreds of attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to the State Department.
  • March 5, 2025: The U.S. designation of Ansarallah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization takes effect on publication in the Federal Register.
  • September 2026: A Houthi offensive sweeps down the Red Sea coast and takes ground along the Bab el-Mandeb, part of a fight we tracked around Perim Island.
  • Early October 2026: The Houthis cut the road south from Taiz.
  • Oct. 28, 2026: Houthi strike on Aden airport.
  • Nov. 2, 2026: Al-Maqatirah falls; fighting reaches Tur al-Bahah.

Analysis: why it matters

The Houthi advance matters beyond Yemen for two reasons. First, the push puts the government’s seat under direct ground pressure for the first time in a decade. If Tur al-Bahah falls, the Houthis would sit astride one of the main approaches to the city while keeping Taiz cut off, and the government would have to defend Aden and relieve Taiz at the same time with forces already stretched by the coastal fighting. Second, the high ground the Houthis are trying to outflank looks down on one of the world’s key shipping lanes. Before the regional war, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated that petroleum moving through the strait made up about 9% of all seaborne-traded oil. A closure would force Gulf tankers bound for Suez around Africa, adding time and cost.

Reuters’ sources tie the Yemen front to the wider U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, and the pattern fits: as the Houthis press harder on the ground, they also fire more often at Saudi Arabia, and Riyadh strikes back harder. That cycle has already ended the 2022 truce. The Congressional Research Service found that the war had killed more than 145,000 people by late 2021, citing ACLED data, before this new phase began. The next tests are whether government forces hold Tur al-Bahah, whether aid can still reach Taiz, and whether Saudi strikes widen beyond Houthi front-line areas.

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