Yemen’s leader announces military operation to retake Houthi-held territory
The Saudi Arabia-backed chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, has announced the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory held by the Houthis, an armed group also known as Ansar Allah (Arabic for Supporters of God), and restore state authority across the country.
In a televised address, al-Alimi said on Sunday that the internationally recognised government’s forces would extend “the authority of the state and its institutions over the entire national territory”.
“We have instructed the armed forces, security forces and all military formations to begin carrying out their assigned tasks under an approved plan until the country is liberated from the Houthis,” he said.
Al-Alimi added that all state institutions will be placed on full alert “until the mission is completed and victory is achieved”.
The development comes after the Yemeni government army and forces loyal to it “executed 257 precision targeting operations” against Houthi sites, movements and military capabilities on Saturday, according to the spokesman for Yemen’s internationally recognised government forces, Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili.
He added that initial estimates indicate that the operations killed at least 700 Houthi rebels.
The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government, Turki al-Malik, said on Saturday that the Houthis’ “ties to external agendas” have brought “chaos and devastation to Yemen”.
Early on Sunday, the Saudi-led coalition said its armed forces carried out 97 “precise targeting operations” against Houthi reinforcements on the Tor al-Baha front and the Taiz axis, using warplanes, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers.
Later in the day, Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the group’s forces had fired ballistic missiles and drones at two Saudi Aramco sites in Saudi Arabia – one in Riyadh and the other in the area of Khurais, 150km (93 miles) north-east of the capital.
There was no immediate comment by Saudi Arabia.
London-based defence analyst Ibrahim Jalal told Al Jazeera the internationally recognised government’s new “full-scale” operation against the Houthis has brought the conflict into a “new phase”.
“Peace and de-escalation processes have failed because there’s an obvious imbalance of power that has been hanging in the balance for about six years now at least. In order to break the stalemate, there must be a decisive battle,” said Jalal, who specialises in regional security and armed groups.
The fighting between the Houthis and Yemeni government forces has intensified since a fragile 2022 truce collapsed in July, displacing hundreds of thousands of people since.
In mid-September, the Houthis seized the port city of Mocha and strategic islands in the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a vital route for global oil shipments, before anti-Houthi forces stabilised front lines.
Yemen has been at war since the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, forcing the Yemeni government to retreat to Aden.
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