The Saudi-backed Yemeni government has launched a major military offensive aimed at retaking territories controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis, including areas seized by the rebels in recent weeks.
Yemeni President and head of the Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, announced the counteroffensive in a televised address on Sunday, saying government forces would continue fighting “until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia.”
A military spokesman also called on the Houthis to surrender their weapons as government forces moved to reclaim territory held by the group.
The Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, have controlled Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and large parts of the northwest since 2014.
The group has survived several military campaigns by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and their Western allies, while strengthening its weapons capabilities with Iranian support.
The latest escalation followed a Houthi offensive last month in which the group seized the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait and about 150 kilometres of Red Sea coastline, increasing its influence over one of the world’s key maritime routes.
As the Yemeni government announced its offensive, the Houthis claimed they had fired ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco facilities in Riyadh and the Khurais area of Saudi Arabia.
They said the attacks were retaliation for what they described as 50 Saudi-led air and missile strikes on Yemen within 12 hours.
Saudi Arabia had not immediately confirmed the claims.
Alimi said the government decided to launch the counteroffensive after efforts to de-escalate the conflict had been exhausted.
He also thanked Saudi Arabia for its support and appealed to Yemen’s regional allies and international partners to back the Presidential Leadership Council’s forces and institutions.
The Houthis have also made recent advances near Taiz, where military sources said they had captured strategic hilltops and were advancing towards the last road linking the city with Aden.
Control of the Taiz-Aden road could effectively put Taiz under siege.
The city, Yemen’s third-largest, is home to hundreds of thousands of civilians and thousands of government troops.
The renewed fighting has also worsened Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, with the World Food Programme saying last week that three in four families in some parts of the country were going hungry as fighting displaced tens of thousands of people and disrupted supplies to millions.
