Yemen · updated 2h ago · 3 min read
Rashad Al-Alimi Launches Military Operations To Retake Houthi-Held Yemen Territories
Rashad al-Alimi announced start of military operations to reclaim Yemeni lands and extend state authority. The government called for general mobilization of citizens to support armed forces.
Whether to foreground Yemen’s operation or Iran isolation.
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BBC
“Today, I announce the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory”Read the original ↗
The BBC stresses Yemen's retaking operation, while yalibnan leads with Iran isolation, shifting emphasis away from al-Alimi's mobilisation.
Counteroffensive announced
Rashad al-Alimi announced the start of military operations to retake remaining territories of Yemen held by the Houthis and to extend the authority of the state and its institutions over the entire national territory. Al-Alimi said the decision came after the state “exhausted all opportunities for de-escalation” with the Houthis, while accusing the group of targeting neighboring countries and international passages and forcing children into combat. Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili said Yemeni forces “executed 257 precision targeting operations” against Houthi sites, movements, and military capabilities on Saturday, and he added that initial estimates indicated the operations killed at least 700 Houthi rebels.
Turki al-Malik said the Houthis’ “ties to external agendas” have brought “chaos and devastation to Yemen,” as the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government reported 97 “precise targeting operations” against Houthi reinforcements on the Tor al-Baha front and the Taiz axis. Yahya Saree later claimed the Houthis fired ballistic missiles and drones at two Saudi Aramco sites in Saudi Arabia, one in Riyadh and the other in the area of Khurais, some 150km (93 miles) north-east of the capital.
Taiz supply route cut
Security sources told AFP that Houthi forces cut a vital supply route to the besieged government-held city of Taiz, as Yemen’s Saudi-backed government announced the start of a major military operation to retake Houthi-held territory. A police source in the al-Safiya area told AFP that the Houthis took control of the police station and cut the main road, and three Yemeni military sources confirmed Houthi control over the area and supply route.
Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Chatham House think-tank, told AFP that the Houthis had “achieved the military objective of isolating Taiz from Aden, even if they haven't fully taken control of it.” Rashad al-Alimi said in a televised address, “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.”
Regional and humanitarian stakes
The conflict’s wider stakes included the Houthis’ claimed ballistic missile and drone attack on Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais area, which the Houthis said caused major fires in response to what they described as 50 Saudi-led air and missile strikes on Yemen in the past 12 hours. Rashad al-Alimi thanked Saudi Arabia for its support, saying the kingdom had “stood alongside Yemen in the darkest circumstances,” and he called on Yemen’s regional allies and international partners to support the country, its armed forces and state institutions. Reuters reported that the US was already providing intelligence to support Riyadh’s operations in Yemen, while some regional and European nations were providing mainly defensive military aid to the kingdom, according to six people with knowledge of the Saudi preparations.
The World Food Programme said last week that “Three-in-four families in parts of Yemen are going hungry,” linking the hunger to the impact of the surge in fighting, displacement, and disrupted supplies to millions. Reuters also described how Houthi control over the Taiz-Aden road would lead to an effective siege of Taiz, a city Yemen’s third-largest with hundreds of thousands of civilians and thousands of government forces stationed there.