Yemen Launches Major Offensive Against Houthis — SkimNews
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- Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council declared a major military campaign to recapture all territory held by Iran-backed Houthis, with President Rashad al-Alimi saying forces will press the offensive "until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia."
- The Houthis captured the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait and roughly 90 miles of Red Sea coast in a surprise offensive last month, gaining leverage over a key shipping route between the Mediterranean and Asia.
- Houthi forces claimed they struck Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais area with ballistic missiles and drones, calling it retaliation for 50 Saudi-led strikes in Yemen over the prior 12 hours; Saudi Arabia did not immediately confirm.
- Saudi Arabia is leading aerial combat while Yemeni forces fight on the ground, with the U.S. providing intelligence support and regional and European nations supplying mainly defensive military aid, per officials cited by Reuters.
- Houthi gains in the last 48 hours on strategic hilltops near Taiz threaten the last road to Aden, which would effectively siege Yemen's third-largest city where hundreds of thousands of civilians and thousands of government forces are stationed.
- The World Food Programme reported last week that three in four families in parts of Yemen are going hungry from the surge in fighting, which has displaced tens of thousands and disrupted supplies to millions.
Why it matters: A successful Houthi advance on Taiz would siege Yemen's third-largest city, home to hundreds of thousands of civilians and a region tied to President al-Alimi, compounding a humanitarian crisis the WFP says already has three in four families in parts of Yemen going hungry.
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