Yemen announces campaign to retake Houthi-held territory

Yemen’s internationally recognised government has announced a military campaign to retake territory held by the Iran-backed Houthis, as fighting intensifies around the city of Taiz and the armed group claims fresh strikes on Saudi oil facilities.

Rashad al-Alimi, the Saudi-backed head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said in a televised address on Sunday that the operation would extend “the authority of the state and its institutions over the entire national territory”.

“We have instructed the armed forces, security forces and all military formations to begin carrying out their assigned tasks under an approved plan until the country is liberated from the Houthis,” he said. Al-Alimi said state institutions would remain on full alert until the mission was completed.

The announcement followed days of strikes and competing claims about their toll. Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili, a spokesman for government forces, said they had carried out 257 precision targeting operations against Houthi positions and military capabilities on Saturday. Initial estimates indicated that at least 700 Houthi fighters were killed, he said, according to Al Jazeera. The figure could not be independently verified from the accounts provided.

Early Sunday, the Saudi-led coalition said it had carried out 97 targeting operations against Houthi reinforcements near Taiz and on the Tor al-Baha front, using aircraft, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers, Al Jazeera reported. The BBC reported that the government also said its forces struck Houthi targets on Saturday in the capital, Sanaa, the northern Saada region and near Taiz.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said Sunday that the group had launched ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais area. “Both operations successfully achieved their objectives,” he said, claiming the strikes caused large fires. Saudi Arabia had not commented on the claimed attack. The Houthis said it was a response to what they described as 50 Saudi-led coalition air and missile strikes in Yemen over 12 hours. Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said at least two people were wounded in coalition strikes Sunday.

Taiz remains a key front. The Houthis are fighting government forces for the region as they seek control of coastal areas near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital shipping route. AFP reported Sunday, citing three Yemeni military sources, that Houthi forces had cut the supply route between Taiz and Aden, the government’s interim capital, effectively encircling Taiz.

“They’ve achieved the military objective of isolating Taiz from Aden, even if they haven’t fully taken control of it,” Chatham House research fellow Farea Al-Muslimi told AFP, according to the BBC.

Accounts of the Houthis’ September coastal gains differ. The BBC reported that they seized Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Al Jazeera reported that they captured the port city of Mocha and strategic islands in the strait before anti-Houthi forces stabilised the front lines.

Yemen’s war began in 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and the government retreated to Aden. Saudi Arabia led a coalition into the conflict the following year. Fighting intensified again in July after a period of relative calm, deepening the crisis in one of the world’s poorest countries.