By Mohammed Ghobari, Timour Azhari and Eman Abouhassira
ADEN, Oct 4 (Reuters) – The leader of Yemen’s Saudi-backed government announced the beginning of a major military operation against the Iran-backed Houthis on Sunday, aimed at seizing the territory under their control.
Regional and western officials had told Reuters earlier this week that Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies were planning to launch an assault on the Houthis, with the Saudis leading aerial combat and Yemeni forces fighting on the ground.
“Today, I announce the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory,” Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi said in a televised address.
The Houthis, meanwhile, said they had launched ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais area of Saudi Arabia, claiming the attacks caused major fires, in response to what they said were 50 Saudi-led air and missile strikes on Yemen in the past 12 hours.
There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi Arabia.
‘OPPORTUNITIES FOR DE-ESCALATION EXHAUSTED’
Al-Alimi said the decision to launch the counteroffensive came after all opportunities for de-escalation had been exhausted, accusing the Houthis of responding to efforts to calm the conflict with further mobilisation and escalation.
“Our position today is to assume the national responsibility of confronting the Houthi militia, after all opportunities for de-escalation have been exhausted,” he said.
Al-Alimi said he had ordered the armed forces, security forces and all military formations to begin carrying out their assigned tasks under approved plans.
Saudi Arabia entered neighbouring Yemen’s civil war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition in support of the internationally recognised government, which the Houthis had driven out of the capital Sanaa.
Al-Alimi thanked Saudi Arabia for its support, saying the kingdom had “stood alongside Yemen in the darkest circumstances,” and called on Yemen’s regional allies and international partners to support the country, its armed forces and state institutions.
The US is already providing intelligence to support Riyadh’s operations in Yemen, while some regional and European nations are providing mainly defensive military aid to the kingdom, six people with knowledge of the Saudi preparations told Reuters.
A truce agreed between the warring parties in 2022 largely held until this year, when the Houthis launched missile and drone attacks on Saudi shipping and oil infrastructure in a spillover from the Iran war.
HOUTHIS’ LIGHTNING OFFENSIVE
The Houthis have so far maintained the initiative on the ground, weeks after seizing the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait in a lightning offensive down the coast that saw government forces collapse.
Bab el-Mandeb is the southern exit passage of the Red Sea, a key shipping route between the Mediterranean and Asia that has assumed even more importance this year as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed by the Iran conflict.
The Houthis already controlled the northwest of the country, where most of the population live.
In the last 48 hours, the Houthis have also made gains against government and local forces on strategic hilltops near Yemen’s Taiz, military sources said, advancing on the last road between the city and Aden on the southern coast, where the Saudi-backed Yemeni government is based.
Houthi control over the Taiz-Aden road would lead to an effective siege of the city, Yemen’s third-largest, inhabited by hundreds of thousands of civilians and where thousands of government forces are also stationed.
It would also consolidate control of that flat coastal Bab el-Mandeb area by seizing the rugged mountains overlooking them in the western Taiz countryside, according to Mohammed Al-Qadhi, a veteran Yemeni journalist from Taiz now working as a political analyst.
“This will help them protect their back in case of any operation against the coastline, and make recapturing those areas much more difficult,” he said.
The city is important not just for its strategic location; Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi is from the region, and a siege of Taiz would amplify an already-dire humanitarian situation in the country.
Three-in-four families in parts of Yemen are going hungry from the impact of the surge in fighting, which has displaced tens of thousands of people and disrupted supplies to millions, the World Food Programme said last week.
(Reporting by Eman Abouhassira and Timour Azhari; Editing by David Goodman, Louise Heavens and Alex Richardson)
