ADEN: Yemen's internationally recognised government has launched a major offensive against the Houthi movement, which has held the capital Sanaa since 2014, with heavy support from Saudi Arabia's air force, All India Radio reported on October 6.
President Rashad al-Alimi said the campaign, named "Operation Dawn of Yemen", aims to take back territory held by the Houthis and restore the authority of the state. Government forces claim advances around Bab al-Mandab, the strait at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, and in the Dhubab area, and say they have retaken the port town of Mocha.
The government and the Saudi-led coalition have published large numbers for the campaign's first days. They say 1,122 precision operations have been carried out against Houthi targets in Saada, Al Jawf, Taiz and on the western coast, that 100 Saudi fighter jets took part in Monday's operations, and that 324 "high-value" targets have been destroyed, according to All India Radio. These figures could not be independently verified.
Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili said the operations "targeted artillery and rocket-launcher positions, defensive fortifications, supply routes, reinforcements and command-and-control centres".
The offensive follows days of escalating fighting. On October 2, Yemen's armed forces carried out 20 airstrikes on Houthi positions in Taiz province within three hours, UNI reported. "The raids achieved direct hits on enemy targets and inflicted losses on the militia's elements, equipment, and military movements," a military spokesman said.
On October 4, the Saba news agency in Aden said government forces had carried out 97 operations against Houthi reinforcements on the Tur al-Bahah and Taiz fronts, killing or neutralising 260 Houthi fighters and destroying or disabling 44 military vehicles, with further strikes on Houthi positions in Sanaa and Saada.
The truce that had largely held since October 2022 ended without a political settlement, the Aden-based South24 Center reported in September. The escalation began in July over Iranian flights to Sanaa airport, whose runway was struck to stop them landing; in August the Houthis attacked military positions in Marib and Hadramout and targeted Mocha, and declared a "blockade for blockade" against Saudi shipping.
On September 3, a large-scale Houthi attack in western Taiz and southern Hodeidah set off counter-offensives across several provinces, the most severe escalation since the truce, South24 reported. Saudi accounts said 73 civilians had been injured in Houthi attacks on southern Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said the Houthis had "opened a door they cannot handle".
The Houthis say they have struck back at Saudi Arabia. Their military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Sare'e, told the Houthi-run Al Masirah channel that they had "launched a ballistic missile and drone operation targeting Aramco in Riyadh", and claimed the strikes "hit their targets and caused fires".
The coalition's spokesman, Major General Turki al-Malki, called the claim "misleading", saying the Houthis were trying to create an "illusory victory" while suffering heavy losses in Taiz, All India Radio reported. Neither side's account could be independently confirmed.
The fighting has drawn in Saudi Arabia's new defence partners. Pakistan and Türkiye joined an emergency meeting of the Makkah Alliance for Defence and agreed to implement their collective-defence commitments, according to All India Radio.
On October 2, Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar announced that Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye would hold a meeting of the alliance's Strategic Political Defence Committee in Riyadh to focus on the rising Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, UNI reported.
Bab al-Mandab is one of the world's busiest shipping chokepoints, linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, and fighting along the coast puts traffic through the strait at risk. The government's claimed gains around the strait and at Mocha, if they hold, would push the Houthis back from that coastline. The Houthis are backed by Iran, UNI noted in its reports on the fighting.
