ADEN, Yemen, Oct 4 – Yemen’s internationally recognized government has announced a major military offensive aimed at taking back territory held by the Iran-backed Houthi movement, opening a potentially significant new phase in the country’s long-running war.
President Rashad al-Alimi, who heads Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), said in a televised address on Sunday that government forces would continue their campaign until the country was freed from what he described as the control of the Houthi militia. A military spokesman later called on Houthi fighters to surrender their weapons.
The announcement comes as Houthi forces remain in control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, as well as large areas of the northwest, where much of the country’s population lives. The movement has maintained its grip on those areas since 2014 despite years of military pressure from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Western-backed forces.
The latest escalation follows a rapid Houthi advance last month in which the group seized the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait and about 150 kilometers (90 miles) of coastline along the Red Sea, according to military and regional officials familiar with the fighting.
The development has significantly altered the military balance in Yemen. Control of Bab el-Mandeb gives the Houthis influence over one of the world’s most important maritime corridors, linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and providing a major passage for ships traveling between Europe and Asia.
The fighting is also unfolding against the backdrop of the wider U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which began in February. The conflict has expanded beyond Iran’s borders, drawing several regional actors into a broader confrontation and putting additional pressure on key energy and shipping routes across the Middle East.
The Houthis’ seizure of territory along the Red Sea has effectively created another front in that wider conflict. Tehran’s confrontation with the United States and Israel has already affected shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, while the developments in Yemen have increased the strategic importance of the Bab el-Mandeb passage on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula.
Houthis claim attacks on Saudi oil facilities
As the Yemeni government announced its offensive, the Houthis said they had launched ballistic missiles and drones toward Saudi Arabia, targeting Saudi Aramco facilities in Riyadh and the Khurais area.
The Houthi movement said the attacks were retaliation for what it described as roughly 50 Saudi-led air and missile strikes against targets inside Yemen over a 12-hour period. The group claimed that its attacks caused major fires at the Saudi sites, although there was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities regarding the extent of any damage.
Alimi said the government had decided to move ahead with the counteroffensive after efforts to reduce tensions and reach a de-escalation had been exhausted.
He also thanked Saudi Arabia for its continued support and urged Yemen’s regional allies and international partners to back the PLC, its armed forces and state institutions.
Saudi Arabia has been preparing for a renewed military confrontation with the Houthis alongside its Yemeni allies. Regional and Western officials have indicated that Riyadh is expected to provide much of the aerial support while Yemeni forces carry out the main ground operations.
The United States is also providing intelligence support for Saudi operations in Yemen, according to people familiar with the preparations. Several regional and European countries have been providing primarily defensive military assistance to Saudi Arabia.
The renewed fighting represents a major reversal from the relative calm that followed a truce between the warring sides in 2022. That agreement largely held for several years, despite the absence of a comprehensive political settlement.
The conflict began to intensify again this year as the war involving Iran spread across the region. The Houthis subsequently resumed attacks involving missiles and drones against Saudi-linked shipping and energy infrastructure, drawing Riyadh back toward a more direct military role.
Yemen’s conflict has remained deeply fragmented throughout the war. The country is divided among numerous political, tribal and armed factions, with different groups receiving support from competing regional powers.
The Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, emerged as a powerful armed movement among Yemen’s Zaidi Shi’ite community. Following the political upheaval associated with the Arab Spring in 2011, the group expanded its influence and eventually captured Sanaa in 2014.
The Saudi-backed PLC, which is also recognised by the United Nations, has maintained control over much of southern and eastern Yemen. Its political and military leadership is based in Aden, the former capital of South Yemen.
Saudi Arabia intervened directly in the civil war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition supporting the internationally recognised government. Despite years of airstrikes and ground operations, the coalition failed to remove the Houthis from their main strongholds.
The latest offensive therefore carries substantial military and political risks for Riyadh and the Yemeni government. Any prolonged campaign could draw the Saudi military deeper into a conflict it has spent years trying to contain.
Houthi advances raise fears for Taiz and humanitarian crisis
Despite the government’s announcement of a counteroffensive, Houthi forces have entered the latest phase of the conflict from a position of strength.
The movement has retained the initiative on several parts of the battlefield since its rapid capture of Bab el-Mandeb and surrounding territory last month. The offensive reportedly caused government positions in the area to collapse within a short period, allowing the Houthis to expand their control along the Red Sea coast.
Bab el-Mandeb is particularly important because it forms the southern entrance to the Red Sea and serves as a vital maritime connection between the Mediterranean and Asian markets. Its importance has grown further this year because of disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis have also made advances around Taiz in recent days, according to military sources. Fighters have moved against government and local forces positioned on strategically important hills near the city.
Taiz is one of Yemen’s most important urban centres and is the country’s third-largest city. It has remained divided and heavily contested for years.
The latest Houthi advances have raised concerns that the group could cut the remaining road connecting Taiz with Aden on Yemen’s southern coast. If that route were lost, the city could effectively come under siege, placing additional pressure on hundreds of thousands of civilians and thousands of government troops stationed there.
The potential isolation of Taiz would also carry political significance for Alimi, who comes from the region. A prolonged siege could further undermine the government’s position while worsening conditions for civilians already affected by years of war.
The humanitarian consequences of the latest escalation are already becoming more severe.
The World Food Programme warned last week that three out of four families in some parts of Yemen were going hungry as the renewed fighting disrupted food supplies and displaced tens of thousands of people. Millions of others have been affected by interruptions to essential supplies.
Yemen has already endured one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises after more than a decade of political instability, armed conflict and economic collapse. A new nationwide offensive could put additional pressure on communities that have struggled to recover from previous rounds of fighting.
For the Yemeni government, the campaign represents an attempt to reverse the Houthis’ recent battlefield gains and reclaim territory that has been outside government control for years. For Saudi Arabia, it presents an opportunity to push back against a movement that has repeatedly threatened its territory and energy infrastructure.
But the military campaign also risks widening a conflict that has increasingly become connected to the broader confrontation involving Iran, the United States and Israel.
Whether the government can regain territory will depend heavily on the ability of its different military factions to coordinate their operations, maintain supply lines and withstand Houthi attacks. The coming weeks are likely to determine whether the new offensive becomes a sustained campaign or another costly escalation in Yemen’s long-running war.