Yemen Government Launches Counteroffensive Against Houthis — SkimNews
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- Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council announced a military campaign to recapture all areas held by Houthis, with President Rashad al-Alimi pledging to fight "until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia" and a spokesman calling on Houthis to lay down weapons.
- Houthis said they launched ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and Khouras, claiming major fires and citing 50 Saudi-led strikes in Yemen in the past 12 hours; Saudi Arabia had not confirmed the attacks at the time of the announcement.
- Saudi Arabia is leading aerial combat while Yemeni government forces fight on the ground, with the U.S. providing intelligence support and some regional and European nations supplying mainly defensive military aid to Riyadh.
- Houthis have seized the initiative since capturing the Bab el-Mandeb strait — the southern Red Sea exit passage between the Mediterranean and Asia — and roughly 90 miles of coast in last month's offensive that saw government forces collapse.
- Houthis have made gains on hilltops near Taiz in the last 48 hours, advancing on the last road between Yemen's third-largest city and Aden; control of the road would create an effective siege of hundreds of thousands of civilians and thousands of government troops.
- World Food Programme reported three in four families in parts of Yemen are going hungry from the fighting surge, which has displaced tens of thousands and disrupted supplies to millions.
Why it matters: Yemeni forces are now fighting to reverse a Houthi seizure of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the southern Red Sea shipping chokepoint that has become a critical alternative to the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war. The counteroffensive, backed by Saudi air power and U.S. intelligence, risks pulling Washington deeper into a conflict that has already displaced tens of thousands of Yemenis and left three in four families in parts of the country going hungry.
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