Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces said on Monday they had taken large parts of Dhubab district, which overlooks the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, as they try to reverse last month’s gains by the Iran-backed Houthis and drive the group from the vital waterway, reports Reuters.
Three military sources and a government source said troops, backed by heavy air support from a Saudi-led coalition, were asserting full control of the area. Houthi-aligned media earlier dismissed the claims as “completely untrue”.
The government announced on Sunday an offensive to recapture Houthi-held territory. President Rashad al-Alimi, who chairs the Presidential Leadership Council, ordered the armed forces, security forces and all military formations to carry out an approved plan until the country is “liberated from the Houthis”.
On Monday, Yemeni forces also said they had begun a “strategic” offensive on Sanaa, the capital, which the Houthis have held since 2014, and were attacking on several fronts including Sanaa province. Riyadh said it had struck hundreds of targets in Yemen to give air cover to the strait and to Yemeni ground forces.
The government army said 1,747 Houthi fighters had been “neutralised” in 1,122 operations in the Saada, al-Jawf and Taiz governorates and along the western coast, and that 364 military and logistical vehicles were destroyed or disabled.
Military spokesman Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili said the strikes hit artillery and rocket positions, fortifications, supply lines, reinforcements and command centres. The figures could not be independently verified.
Fighting also escalated in Marib, in the northeast, where a military source said government forces attacked Houthi positions on the Raghwan front as air raids hit positions near Mount Helan, an arms depot and reinforcements northwest of Marib.
The heaviest fighting is in the southwest, on the coast near the strait and in the hills around Taiz. Late on Sunday the Houthis advanced onto sections of the mountain road to the city, five government sources said, though another denied the road had been cut.
Four security sources said a vital supply route to Aden, the government’s interim capital, had been severed.
Last week, Houthi attacks damaged a culvert on the Taiz-Aden road, making it impassable. On Sunday night, five government military sources said, the group’s fighters pushed into al-Turbah, a town on a high promontory along the road, although another government source denied this.
A Houthi-run news agency said the group had driven government forces from al-Mawasit district in Taiz province, reaching the home of Alimi, head of the interim presidential council.
Government military sources said the advances leave Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, with over half a million people and a garrison of thousands of government fighters, surrounded.
Fighting has raged along several fronts for weeks after the dormant civil war erupted in a spillover from the US-Iran conflict. The Houthis, seeking control of the strait, have fired missiles and drones at Saudi cities and infrastructure.
With Gulf energy exports already restricted by Iran’s closure of the Hormuz Strait, the fighting threatens another major oil export route, pushing up global prices.
Saudi Arabia, which arms and trains the government forces, has sought logistical help from allies to push back the Houthis and restore free traffic in the Red Sea.
Coalition spokesman Major-General Turki al-Maliki said support would continue until state institutions were restored and the threat to shipping ended, citing attacks on Riyadh, Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jizan, Najran, Taif and Yanbu in recent weeks.
Last month the Houthis seized about 150km (93 miles) of Red Sea coastline, and more than 100,000 people have been displaced since the truce collapsed in July.
Defence analyst Ibrahim Jalal said the Houthis’ missile and drone capabilities have grown with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps support.
The conflict began when the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led intervention the following year. A 2022 ceasefire held until July.
