Yemen’s leader announces military operation to retake Houthi-held territory

What the report says

Yemen’s internationally recognised leadership has announced a new military campaign aimed at retaking territory still held by the Houthi movement and reasserting state control across the country. In a televised address on Sunday, Rashad al-Alimi, who heads the Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council, said government forces had been ordered to carry out an approved plan to extend the authority of the state and its institutions nationwide.

According to Al Jazeera, al-Alimi said the armed forces, security services and other military formations would be placed on full alert until the operation is completed. The announcement came after the government’s military spokesman said Yemeni forces had carried out hundreds of targeting operations against Houthi positions on Saturday. The article also cited claims from the government side that those strikes caused heavy Houthi casualties, though such figures could not be independently verified in the report.

The latest escalation comes after a fragile 2022 truce collapsed in July, with fighting intensifying and displacing large numbers of people, according to the report. Al Jazeera also noted that the Houthis seized the port city of Mocha and nearby strategic islands in the Bab al-Mandeb area in mid-September, before anti-Houthi forces stabilized the front lines. Yemen has been at war since the Houthis took Sanaa in 2014, forcing the government to relocate to Aden.