Yemen Government Opens Offensive to Retake Houthi Areas
President Alimi launches military operations to retake Houthi-held land after the group seized Bab el-Mandeb and closed in on Taiz.
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s internationally recognized government on Sunday, Oct. 4, declared the start of nationwide military operations to take back territory held by the Iran-backed Houthi movement, weeks after the group seized the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and a long stretch of the Red Sea coast.
President Rashad al-Alimi, who heads the Presidential Leadership Council, announced the operation in a televised address, Reuters reported. He said government forces would press on “until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia.” A military spokesman separately called on the Houthis, who call their movement Ansar Allah, to lay down their weapons.
According to the BBC, Alimi said the government was beginning operations to recover the remaining territory of the republic because all avenues for de-escalation had been exhausted. He thanked Saudi Arabia for its support and asked international partners to stand behind the Presidential Leadership Council.
Saudi role and outside support
Regional and Western officials told Reuters earlier in the week that the plan envisaged a Saudi-led air campaign, with Yemeni government troops doing the fighting on the ground.
Six people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the United States was already supplying intelligence to support Saudi operations. Some regional and European governments, they said, were offering mainly defensive assistance to the kingdom.
The Houthis answered with claims of their own. Military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group fired ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco facilities in Riyadh and at the Khurais oil field, and claimed the strikes caused large fires. He described the attacks as retaliation for what he said were 50 Saudi-led air strikes in the preceding 12 hours. There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported, and the Houthi claims could not be independently verified.
The Houthi-run Al-Masirah channel said Saudi strikes on Sunday wounded at least two people, the BBC reported. Yemen’s government said on Saturday, Oct. 3, that its forces had struck Houthi targets in Sanaa, in Saada and near Taiz.
Taiz under pressure
The announcement followed a series of Houthi gains. Last month the group took control of the Bab el-Mandeb and about 90 miles of Red Sea coastline after government forces there collapsed.
In the 48 hours before Alimi spoke, Houthi fighters captured strategic hilltops near Taiz and advanced on the last road linking the city to Aden, military sources told Reuters. Cutting that road would leave Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, effectively besieged. The BBC, citing AFP, reported on Sunday that the Houthis had cut the supply route.
The fighting is unfolding alongside the wider regional war. On Oct. 4, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the Strait of Hormuz would stay closed until Tehran’s conditions were met, Al Jazeera reported.
A war restarted
The Houthis captured Sanaa in 2014, and a Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015. A truce agreed in 2022 largely held until this year. According to the BBC, full-scale fighting resumed in July, as spillover from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began in February reached Yemen.
The humanitarian picture is already severe. The World Food Programme said last week that three in four families in parts of Yemen were going hungry, and tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the renewed fighting.
What it means: The government is launching its offensive from a position of recent losses, not strength, and its success will depend heavily on Saudi air power and outside intelligence. The Houthi claim of strikes on Aramco sites, if confirmed, would signal that the group intends to raise the cost for Riyadh directly rather than fight only on Yemeni soil.
Sources
- The Boston Report: Yemen Offensive Against Houthis
- BBC: Yemen government announces major operation to retake Houthi territory
- President Al-Alimi: Launch of Military Operations Nationwide
- Al-Monitor: Yemen leader announces major military operations against Houthis
