Yemen's government launches military operation to retake Houthi-held territory amid fresh strikes
Yemen's internationally recognised leadership has announced the start of military operations aimed at retaking territory held by the Houthi armed group. Rashad al-Alimi, who heads the Presidential Leadership Council, said the campaign is intended to restore state authority across the country. In a televised address on Sunday, he said government forces had been instructed to begin carrying out their assigned tasks under an approved plan.
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Al-Alimi said the objective was to extend the authority of the state and its institutions over the entire national territory. He added that all state institutions would be placed on full alert until the mission was completed. The announcement followed an exchange of strikes in recent days between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government.
On Sunday, the Houthis said they had struck sites belonging to Saudi national oil company Aramco. The group said the attack was in response to what it described as 50 Saudi-led coalition air and missile strikes in Yemen in 12 hours. Saudi Arabia has not yet commented on the claim.
The figures and claims have not been independently verified in the supplied material. The latest escalation matters because it comes against the backdrop of a wider struggle for control of Yemen's Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world's most sensitive shipping corridors. The conflict intensified in September, when the Houthis seized the country's entire Red Sea coast, further disrupting global oil supplies.
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Attacks on the Houthis have also spread across Yemen, including to the Saada region, the group's northern heartland. The frontline remains focused around Taiz, a key city still controlled by the internationally recognised government. The Houthis are engaged in a fierce battle with government forces for control of the region, as they seek to secure coastal areas and, by extension, the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
On Sunday, the Houthis also cut a vital supply route linking Taiz with Aden, the interim capital of the Yemeni government, according to reports cited in the supplied material. Yemen has been divided by war since the Houthis took the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, forcing the government to retreat to Aden. Since then, the conflict has drawn in regional actors and has had wider implications for shipping routes and security around the Bab al-Mandab, a vital corridor for global oil shipments.
The government's latest statement suggests it is seeking not only to reverse recent battlefield gains by the Houthis, but also to reassert control over state institutions nationwide. What remains unclear is the current scale of the offensive, the extent of territorial gains or losses, and whether the reported casualty figures will be confirmed. It is also not clear how the Houthis will respond or whether the fighting will spread beyond the fronts named in the latest statements.
Yemen's internationally recognised leadership has announced the start of military operations aimed at retaking territory held by the Houthi armed group. Rashad al-Alimi, who heads the Presidential Leadership Council, said the campaign is intended to restore state authority across the country. In a televised address on Sunday, he said government forces had been instructed to begin carrying out their assigned tasks under an approved plan.
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Al-Alimi said the objective was to extend the authority of the state and its institutions over the entire national territory. He added that all state institutions would be placed on full alert until the mission was completed. The announcement followed what government forces described as 257 precision targeting operations against Houthi sites, movements and military capabilities on Saturday.
According to the government forces' spokesman, initial estimates indicated that at least 700 Houthi fighters were killed. The Saudi-led coalition supporting the government also said its forces carried out 97 precise targeting operations on Sunday against Houthi reinforcements on the Tor al-Baha front and the Taiz axis. The coalition said the strikes used warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers.
Its spokesman said the Houthis' ties to external agendas had brought chaos and devastation to Yemen. The figures and claims have not been independently verified in the supplied material. The announcement marks a significant escalation in Yemen's long-running war, which has repeatedly shifted between front-line fighting and fragile pauses.
The conflict has intensified since a truce collapsed in July 2022, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. The latest operations also come after the Houthis seized the port city of Mocha and strategic islands in the Bab al-Mandeb strait in mid-September, before anti-Houthi forces said they stabilised the front lines. Yemen has been divided by war since the Houthis took the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, forcing the government to retreat to Aden.
Since then, the conflict has drawn in regional actors and has had wider implications for shipping routes and security around the Bab al-Mandeb, a vital corridor for global oil shipments. The government's latest statement suggests it is seeking not only to reverse recent battlefield gains by the Houthis, but also to reassert control over state institutions nationwide. What remains unclear is the current scale of the offensive, the extent of territorial gains or losses, and whether the reported casualty figures will be confirmed.
It is also not clear how the Houthis will respond or whether the fighting will spread beyond the fronts named in the latest statements. The next developments to watch are any further military claims, possible civilian displacement, and whether the escalation affects shipping and security in the Red Sea corridor.
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