Yemeni government forces have launched counterattacks against Iran-backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea coast and advanced in the southwestern Taiz province, as fighting across Yemen intensifies following a series of significant Houthi territorial gains.
Forces loyal to the internationally recognised government retook positions from the Houthis and pushed forward in western Taiz on Sunday after successfully repelling a Houthi offensive, according to reports from the area.
"This comes with the support of air strikes targeting Houthi gatherings. The air force continues to bomb the Houthis. On the west coast in Mocha, Dhubab, and their surroundings," a source in government forces said.
The Yemeni government vowed to send additional forces to the Red Sea coast. One official acknowledged a "painful" defeat last week, when Houthi fighters captured the port city of Mokha and an island on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a key waterway that handles approximately 12 percent of global trade, including 11 percent of maritime oil and 8 percent of liquefied natural gas.
Houthi fighters were also deployed on the islands of Greater Hanish and Lesser Hanish, located about 86 nautical miles north of the Bab al-Mandeb, according to two Yemeni government officials and a Houthi official.
On Monday, the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, said they launched attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia using dozens of ballistic missiles and drones. The group said the strikes targeted "military facilities and infrastructure, including aircraft hangars, radar installations, runways, ammunition depots and other targets at King Khalid airbase in Khamis Mushait."
The Houthis described the attacks as a response to a Saudi offensive involving more than 300 air strikes across Yemen over five days. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia on the claims.
On Sunday, the Saudi civil defence agency issued alerts for the city of Abha and the region around Khamis Mushait, though they were lifted shortly afterwards.
Fighting in Yemen's more than decade-long civil war reignited in July, threatening a United Nations-brokered truce that had halted large-scale violence in 2022. The renewed conflict began after the Houthis declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia and started targeting its ships in the Red Sea.
The fighting subsequently spread beyond Yemen's borders, with the Houthis carrying out air attacks on southern Saudi Arabia, including oil facilities. Dozens of people were wounded in those strikes.
The Bab al-Mandeb Strait has taken on added strategic importance as an alternative shipping route, with the Strait of Hormuz effectively blocked since February.
The humanitarian situation has deteriorated sharply. The International Organization for Migration reported on Sunday that fighting in recent weeks had displaced nearly 86,000 people inside Yemen. More than 2,000 of those displaced have crossed into neighbouring Djibouti.
