Forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognised government have launched counterattacks against the Houthi rebels, with officials saying they aim to recapture the capital, Sanaa, more than a decade after the Iran-backed Houthis seized it. Major-General Samir Al-Sabri, Yemen’s deputy defence minister, said in remarks broadcast on state television on Monday that “the decision has been made to retake Sanaa”. The announcement came as fighting intensified in the provinces of al-Bayda and al-Jawf, seen as the main gateway to the capital.
The Houthis said seven people were killed in a strike on a prison in al-Hazm in al-Jawf. The renewed hostilities mark one of the most serious escalations since a United Nations-brokered truce in 2022 halted large-scale fighting in a war that began after the Houthis took Sanaa in 2014. The capture of the capital prompted a Saudi-led military intervention the following year.
Diplomats had hoped the truce in 2022 would evolve into a durable political settlement, but those efforts have faltered amid regional tensions triggered by the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran. Fighting in Yemen resumed in July, when government forces struck the Houthi-controlled airport in Sanaa, blocking the landing of an aircraft from Iran. Then last week, the Houthis launched a major offensive, trying to advance through western Taiz and southern Hodeidah, towards the port city of al-Makha and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.
Earlier, the Houthis had declared a blockade against Saudi vessels transiting the waterway. That strait is a vital corridor for shipping between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It has taken on new significance for Saudi oil exports since Iran began restricting passage through the Strait of Hormuz at the outset of the US and Israel’s war on the country.
Ahmed al-Shalafi, Al Jazeera’s Yemen affairs editor, said Yemeni government forces appear “to have absorbed the initial shock” of the rebel offensive “and expanded the fighting across several fronts, partly to stretch Houthi forces and increase pressure on them”. He said the fighting was mainly concentrated west of Taiz and south of Hodeidah on Thursday, but has now spread to the provinces of al-Dhalea, Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda. The World Health Organization said on Monday that nearly 900 people have been killed or wounded since Thursday, with the majority in Taiz and along the western coast.
It said an estimated 21,000 people – roughly 3,000 families – have been displaced from Taiz alone. Health officials say the casualty count is expected to rise further. Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council, claimed sweeping gains against the Houthis on Monday, crediting government forces with advances in al-Jawf, al-Bayda, Taiz and Hodeidah.
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