Fighting continues to intensify in Yemen as the internationally recognised government forces push a military offensive against the Iran-backed Houthis, an armed group also known as Ansar Allah, which controls part of the country. Speaking at the United Nations Security Council on Friday, the UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said the country has effectively slid back into “full-scale war”. Government forces are particularly looking to retake the important Bab al-Mandeb strait at the entrance to the Red Sea, a vital trading chokepoint that has become an important alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have all but halted shipping.
At least 46 civilians have been killed and more than 130 others injured since August, many of them children, according to the United Nations. More than 200,000 people have been displaced since fighting escalated in September, the UN’s migration agency (IOM), said. Fierce battles across several fronts have prompted concerns from rights groups that Yemen has essentially returned to civil war after the relative quiet brought by a 2022 ceasefire that followed a lengthy civil war which first erupted in 2014.
Amid the US-Iran war, Yemen’s worst fighting in years threatens to destabilise the region further, experts say. Here’s what we know: Saudi-backed Yemeni forces are advancing on the Houthis in a bid to recapture areas around the Bab al-Mandeb, a critical trade route for global shipping into and out of the Red Sea. Riyadh has increasingly relied on it for oil exports amid the US-Iran war, which has closed the Strait of Hormuz.
On Sunday, the Yemeni government announced the start of the operation “Dawn of Yemen”, which aims to retake all remaining Houthi-held territory, including the capital, Sanaa. On Saturday, it said it had conducted more than 2,750 precision strikes during military operations over the previous 24 hours, resulting in the “neutralisation” of more than 1,400 Houthi fighters. The spokesperson for the armed forces, Colonel Majid al-Nuzaili, said in a statement carried by Saba news agency that the operations also targeted high-value military assets deep within Houthi-held territory.
He added that ground forces “successfully” breached Houthi defences, recaptured operationally significant positions, secured their field gains and continued to advance the offensive according to operational plans. The Bab al-Mandeb strait emerged as yet another front in the US-Israel war on Iran when the Houthis declared a blockade on ships linked to Saudi Arabia in July. While the Houthis said that was in retaliation for ongoing Saudi blockades on Yemen, analysts viewed the move as calculated to provide more leverage for Iran amid on-and-off negotiations with the US – a close ally of Riyadh.
Battles are now raging around the strategic southern cities of Mocha and Dubhab, which are on the Red Sea coast and strategically important for control of Bab al-Mandeb. The Houthis, who have controlled Sanaa and parts of northwestern Yemen since 2014, seized the area in September, effectively taking control of the strait, although both sides currently claim control of the shipping lanes. The Houthis, who have developed sophisticated weapons systems, including ballistic missiles, have also targeted Saudi Arabia with missile and drone attacks.
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