War in Yemen: what is the latest news, as government forces claim progress? | News from the Houthis

Yemen’s internationally recognized government announced a major military campaign to retake all territory controlled by the Houthis, marking a new escalation in a civil war that had been largely frozen for several years before fighting intensified in recent weeks.

The announcement by Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), the executive body of the Yemeni government, comes after weeks of heavy fighting and major advances by the Houthis along Yemen’s Red Sea coast and around the strategically important city of Taiz.

On Monday, Yemeni government forces announced they were launching a “strategic” offensive on the country’s capital, Sanaa, held by the Houthis since 2014.

Earlier in the day, Yemeni forces – backed by Saudi Arabia – said they had regained control of the Dhubab district on the country’s west coast near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, although the Houthis denied the announcement. The Yemeni government later said it had also captured the port city of Mocha.

Fighting between the Iran-aligned Houthis – an armed group also known as Ansar Allah, which means followers of God in Arabic – and Yemeni government forces has intensified since the collapse of a fragile 2022 truce in July, displacing more than 100,000 people since then.

Last month, the Houthis launched a rapid offensive that captured about 150 km (93 miles) of the Red Sea coastline and areas around Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow waterway linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden that is a key route for international shipping.

On Monday, the foreign minister of Yemen’s internationally recognized government called for more support from the international community to defeat the Houthis, saying it was “in the world’s interest” for the country to be stable.

“We call on our brothers, our friends and the international community to support the Yemeni people, their state and their national institutions in the fight against the Houthi terrorist militia, which is seizing their will by force of arms and destroying the lives of their sons – after having exhausted all opportunities for de-escalation and peace,” Afrah al-Zouba said in a message on X.

So what’s the latest on the fighting and what does the Yemeni government hope to achieve?

What’s the latest fighting news?

The Yemeni government army said Monday that 1,747 Houthi fighters had been “neutralized” in 1,122 military operations in Saada, al-Jawf and Taiz governorates and along Yemen’s west coast.

Military spokesman Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili said the attacks targeted artillery and rocket positions, fortifications, supply lines, reinforcements and command centers.

Al-Nuzaili said fighter jets, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers were involved and 364 military and logistics vehicles were destroyed or neutralized. Casualty and equipment figures could not be independently verified.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government also announced that its forces had taken control of Dhubab and Mocha on the Red Sea coast and were launching a major offensive on Sanaa.

Elsewhere, the frontline in Yemen’s northeastern Marib governorate witnessed an escalation of fighting on Monday.

A military source told Al Jazeera that government forces launched an attack on Houthi positions on the Raghwan front in the north of the governorate, coinciding with air raids on Houthi positions and reinforcements.

The source said the raids targeted Houthi positions near Mount Helan as well as an arms depot and military reinforcements northwest of Marib.

On Sunday, a Saudi-led coalition said its forces carried out 97 attacks against Houthi reinforcements around Taiz and the Tor al-Baha front using warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers.

Regarding developments in Taiz, Al Jazeera Yemen bureau chief Saeed Thabet said the Houthis’ operations in rural areas around the strategic city are based on guerrilla tactics aimed at easing pressure on the coastal front and strengthening the blockade of the road to Aden.

What has the government of Yemen announced?

Al-Alimi said on Sunday that government forces had been ordered to launch military operations to regain Houthi-controlled territory and restore state authority across Yemen.

“We asked the armed forces, security forces and all military formations to start carrying out the tasks assigned to them according to an approved plan until the country is liberated from the Houthis,” al-Alimi said.

Military sources told the Reuters news agency that over the previous 48 hours, the Houthis had advanced against the government and local forces on strategic hilltops near Taiz, advancing along the last road linking the city to Aden, on Yemen’s southern coast. The AFP news agency cited four security sources as saying the Houthis had cut a vital supply route linking Taiz to Aden, the Yemeni government’s interim capital.

The Houthis have controlled Sanaa and much of northwest Yemen since 2014. Saudi Arabia intervened militarily the following year at the head of a coalition supporting the internationally recognized government, but failed to dislodge the group.

A United Nations-brokered truce in 2022 brought years of relative calm before fighting intensified again this year. The latest round of fighting focused mainly on the Red Sea coast and Taiz.

Ibrahim Jalal, a Yemeni defense analyst, said he believed the government and its allies faced a formidable rival, the Houthis.

The Houthis’ missile arsenal, drone precision and “military capabilities have grown” with the support of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), he told Al Jazeera.

Having joined the US-Israeli war against Iran on their own timetable, the Houthis have solidified their place in Tehran’s “axis of resistance” and given the IRGC a way to shift pressure from the Strait of Hormuz to Bab al-Mandeb in the Red Sea, he said.

What did Saudi Arabia say?

Saudi Arabia has pledged to continue supporting the internationally recognized government.

Coalition spokesman Gen. Turki al-Maliki said Saudi Arabia and its allies would continue to support Yemen until state institutions are restored and the Houthi threat to shipping in the southern Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb is over.

Al-Maliki said Saudi Arabia had an “inherent right” to defend its sovereignty and take military measures to deter Houthi offensives, citing attacks in Riyadh, Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jizan, Najran, Taif and Yanbu in recent weeks.