Yemen Launches Major Offensive as Houthis Tighten Grip Around Taiz
ADEN, YEMEN — WEB DESK: Yemen’s internationally recognised government has launched a major military operation to retake territory held by the Houthis as fighting intensifies around the strategically important city of Taiz.
Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, announced the operation in a televised address, declaring that government forces would seek to restore state authority across the country.
Al-Alimi instructed the armed forces, security services and allied military formations to carry out their assigned operations under an approved military plan.
The announcement followed significant Houthi advances around Taiz, one of the most important remaining government-held urban centres in southwestern Yemen.
Houthi forces seized a strategic supply route connecting Taiz with Aden, the temporary capital of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
Security sources said the Houthis captured sections of the main road around the Al-Safiyah area as well as a police station, severely disrupting Taiz’s land connection with government-controlled territory.
Taiz remains under government control, but Houthi forces have tightened pressure around the city from several directions.
The city is Yemen’s third largest and has been one of the most fiercely contested areas during the country’s prolonged civil war. Capturing it could give the Houthis greater access towards southern Yemen.
More than 70 people were reported killed during intense fighting in and around Taiz over a 24-hour period. The competing sides have issued differing casualty figures, preventing independent confirmation of the full toll.
Government forces have also carried out strikes against Houthi positions and military targets in other areas, including Houthi-controlled Sanaa and Saada.
The renewed escalation follows several years of comparatively reduced hostilities after a UN-brokered truce in 2022.
Recent Houthi advances along Yemen’s Red Sea coastline and around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait have significantly increased the strategic importance of the fighting.
Bab el-Mandeb is a critical maritime passage connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and forms part of a major international trade and energy shipping route.
The escalating conflict is also worsening Yemen’s humanitarian emergency. Food insecurity remains severe in Taiz, where large numbers of families are struggling to meet basic nutritional needs.
The new government offensive signals a potentially significant phase in Yemen’s long-running conflict, but the scale and duration of the campaign — and whether government forces can reverse recent Houthi gains — remain uncertain.
