Saudi-backed forces are seeking to retake territory seized by the Iranian-backed group last month.
Yemen’s civil war has intensified, with the internationally recognized government announcing a military operation aimed at retaking territory captured last month by the Iranian-backed Houthis.
The Houthis, a Shiite armed group, continued their own offensive, reportedly seizing more towns in southwestern Taiz province near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
In a televised speech on Sunday, Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said the government ordered “military operations to restore the remaining territory of the republic and extend state authority nationwide.”
The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Major General Turki al-Maliki, said the coalition would continue supporting Yemeni government forces. Saudi Arabia first intervened in the civil war in 2015 after the Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, the previous year.
Houthi-aligned media reported later on Sunday that the group captured the town of Turbah and the districts of Shamayatayn and Samea, as well as the Taiz-Aden road.
Last month, the Houthis launched a major offensive along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, capturing the strategic port city of Mokha from government forces. They subsequently took control of Perim, also known as Mayyun, an island lying in the middle of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The advances gave the group control of key positions around the narrow waterway linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s most important shipping routes. The Houthis later expanded their gains to other Red Sea islands.
Large-scale fighting died down after a UN-brokered truce took effect in April 2022. Hostilities reignited in July amid the US-Iran war and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, after Yemeni government forces struck Sanaa Airport to prevent an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation home from the funeral of Iran’s late supreme leader from landing. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia for the strike and retaliated.
The latest escalation comes as US-Iran talks aimed at ending the wider conflict and reopening the Strait of Hormuz remain stalled. President Donald Trump has rejected Tehran’s latest peace proposal. US media reports suggest that he could resume large-scale strikes on Iran after the midterm election in November.
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Yew Tube
Good roundup of Dumph’s gaslighting history exposed
Stump and his pals have very little leverage. Even if they somehow manage to destroy the Iranian government with excess bombing, they face the reality that Iran will also destroy all of the oil infrastructure of their allies, at the same time. After that they will face Iranian people breaking into enraged armed, radicalised groups and attacking them and ships passing through the straight relentlessly.At least now they have someone to negotiate with. The alternative is far, far worse but are they smart enough to see that?