Yemeni forces press Taiz offensive as Houthi Red Sea gains draw regional backlash

Yemen's government forces have escalated their campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi movement, carrying out a series of air and ground operations across Taiz province in southwestern Yemen over the past 24 hours. The surge in fighting comes as government troops attempt to blunt a recent Houthi territorial advance that has reshaped the balance of power in the country and put a critical global shipping artery under the group's control.

According to the government-affiliated Military Media Centre, the operations included airstrikes on Houthi positions at five separate locations in the province. The centre said the strikes and accompanying ground actions left dozens of Houthi fighters killed or wounded during the past day of fighting near Taiz, adding that several field commanders were among the casualties. It also reported that a number of Houthi military vehicles were damaged or destroyed.

The claimed operations were spread widely across the governorate. Government forces said they hit targets in the Al-Wazi'iyah district in the west of the province, struck weapons storage sites and ammunition depots at Mafraq Ma'wiyah and Al-Dhukrah in the east, and targeted a Houthi gathering in the Hayfan district in the south. In the northwest, government troops engaged military vehicles in the Gurab area. The Media Centre added that government forces repelled Houthi infiltration attempts at the Al-Ahtoub front and at Hadran, and responded with artillery fire against Houthi concentrations on the Al-Kadha and Al-Aqroud fronts.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify these battlefield claims. Reporting from Taiz, Al Jazeera correspondent Maha Ali said government forces appeared to have made advances in the southern part of the governorate, seizing several areas as well as elevated ground. Among the positions reportedly taken was Jabal Bazel, a mountaintop that would place Houthi supply lines within targeting range. Ali characterised the developments as pointing to significant and potentially decisive ground operations in a short period of time.

The fighting follows weeks in which the Houthis have made dramatic territorial gains, including the seizure of the strategic Red Sea coastal city of Mocha and an expansion of their control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a global maritime chokepoint that links Europe and Asia. The rebel group's rise has effectively redrawn the country's internal map: the Houthis control vast swathes of northern and western Yemen, while government forces govern the south and the east.

Rashad al-Alimi, the head of the Presidential Leadership Council, has used the moment to call on Yemenis to mobilise and join the fight, and has offered amnesty to Houthi defectors. Al-Alimi has expressed confidence that government forces are capable of restoring control over the entire country. The appeals come as the government seeks both military volunteers and a narrative of reversal after a period in which the insurgents appeared to be advancing without check.

The renewed violence has again uprooted civilians. Some 130,000 people have been displaced since the fighting erupted in July, following a stretch of relative calm under a UN-brokered ceasefire agreed in 2022. The current escalation has therefore undone years of fragile stabilisation, and the humanitarian toll is compounding in a country already described as among the poorest in the world.

The economic stakes extend far beyond Yemen's borders. Since the latest round of hostilities began earlier this month, the Houthis have accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out strikes inside Yemen and have vowed to block Saudi tankers from the Bab al-Mandeb. That pledge matters because Riyadh has been using the southern Red Sea route as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively closed in response to the US-Israel war in February and through which roughly a fifth of global oil shipments normally pass. A sustained Houthi interdiction campaign would compound disruption to energy and freight routes already under strain.

Yemeni officials have also raised concerns about what they describe as Iranian-supplied surface-to-air systems in Houthi hands. Brig Gen Majed al-Nazili, the official spokesperson for the government forces, warned on social media that the weapons operate using a heat-tracking system and pose a serious threat to international flight paths over the Red Sea. He said such systems are capable of striking military or civilian targets without the ability to distinguish between them, endangering civil aviation and the lives of passengers.

Signs of a widening regional confrontation are already visible. Early on Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said its air defences intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles and two drones launched by the Houthis towards the capital, Riyadh, and the southern city of Khamis Mushait. Saudi Arabia, which has faced Houthi attacks on its own soil, has been turning to its allies, including Pakistan and Turkiye, for support.

Diplomatic efforts have so far produced condemnation rather than action. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud called on the international community to condemn Houthi actions against the kingdom and inside Yemen. Yemen's vice president, Abdullah Abdulkader al-Alimi-Bawzer, used the same forum to accuse the Houthis of using shipping security "as a tool for blackmail", adding that the group was "taking hostage the entire global economy". Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jassim Mohammed al-Budaiwi said the attacks constituted a flagrant violation of Saudi sovereignty and a direct threat to civilian safety and regional stability.

Tehran continues to reject any involvement. Iran has denied playing a role in the Yemen conflict, and President Masoud Pezeshkian told Al Jazeera that the actions of the Houthis were not undertaken with Tehran's involvement.

For now, the strategic picture remains fluid. Government gains in southern Taiz, including control of high ground overlooking Houthi logistics, suggest an operation with momentum, but battlefield claims from the conflict's various factions are notoriously difficult to confirm. What is clear is that the ceasefire architecture of 2022 has collapsed, the Red Sea is again a theatre of military risk, and civilians are bearing the cost of a contest in which local battlefield developments carry global economic consequences.