Yemen army counterattacks Houthis across multiple fronts
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- Yemeni government forces launched attacks on Houthi positions along "multiple axes and along the line of contact" on Saturday, with a military spokesman describing the operation as necessary to "protect unarmed civilians" — the first announced counteroffensive in months, per Al Jazeera's Sanaa correspondent.
- The operation followed Houthi missile and drone strikes on Hadramout and Marib provinces that killed at least 30 government soldiers and wounded 15 others on Thursday, according to Yemeni military accounts.
- Houthis resumed shelling of Marib city with missiles and drones, Deputy Information Minister Mohammed Gezan said; a separate Friday attack on the city killed two civilians and wounded 14 more, Yemen's Health Ministry reported.
- Marib hosts more than 2 million of Yemen's nearly 5 million displaced people, making renewed combat there a direct threat to one of the country's largest concentrations of civilian refugees.
- Houthi leaders say they are acting on suspicions that government forces are coordinating with Saudi Arabia on a broader offensive against Houthi-held territory, framing their strikes as preemptive, Al Jazeera reported.
- Elisabeth Kendall, a Middle East specialist and president of Girton College at Cambridge, warned that with the 2022 truce expired, "all the warning signs are there" for a return to full-scale conflict — but noted government forces are now more unified than in previous years, which could aid them if Saudi Arabia intervenes decisively.
- The United Nations has called for de-escalation, condemning both the Houthi missile attacks and the group's continued strikes on oil tankers in the Red Sea.
Why it matters: With Yemen's 2022 truce expired and Houthi shelling returning to Marib — home to over 2 million of the country's 5 million displaced people — the fighting now directly threatens the war's largest civilian enclave. The Houthis explicitly cite suspected Saudi-government coordination as their trigger, meaning any Saudi escalation broadens the conflict beyond Yemen's borders while complicating UN-mediated de-escalation efforts.
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