Yemen Launches Major Offensive to Retake Houthi-Held Areas

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government announced Sunday a major military campaign aimed at recapturing territory controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthis, escalating a conflict increasingly linked to the wider Middle East war.

President Rashad al-Alimi said government forces would continue fighting until Yemen was “liberated” from the Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah. A military spokesman also urged Houthi fighters to surrender their weapons.

The Houthis have controlled the capital Sanaa and large parts of northwestern Yemen since 2014. Despite years of attacks by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and their Western allies, the group has retained significant military capabilities, strengthened by Iranian support.

Last month, Houthi forces launched a rapid offensive that captured the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait and roughly 150 kilometers of Red Sea coastline. The waterway is a crucial international shipping route connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

As Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council announced its counteroffensive, the Houthis claimed they had fired ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco facilities in Riyadh and Khurais. They said the attacks followed around 50 Saudi-led air and missile strikes in Yemen over 12 hours. Saudi Arabia did not immediately confirm the strikes.

Alimi said military action was approved after efforts to de-escalate the conflict had been exhausted. He thanked Saudi Arabia for its support and urged regional and international partners to back government forces.

Regional and Western officials previously said Riyadh and its Yemeni allies were preparing an offensive in which Saudi forces would lead air operations while Yemeni troops conducted ground attacks. The United States is reportedly supplying intelligence support.

Meanwhile, the Houthis have continued advancing near Taiz, threatening the final road linking the strategically important city with Aden. Capturing the route could effectively besiege Taiz and worsen Yemen’s humanitarian crisis.

The World Food Programme said last week that three out of four families in parts of Yemen are going hungry as renewed fighting displaces tens of thousands and disrupts essential supplies to millions.