The head of Yemen‘s presidential council on Sunday announced the start of a new military operation to retake all territory held by Iran-backed Houthi fighters.
“I announce today the start of military operations to retake the remaining territories of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory,” Rashad al-Alimi said in a statement.
Alimi called on “the armed forces, security forces and all military formations to begin carrying out their assigned missions, in accordance with the approved plans, until the country is liberated from the grip of the Houthi terrorist militia”.
The announcement marks the latest major escalation in the war against the Houthis following a rapid offensive by the Iran-backed group last month that saw them seize large swaths of the Red Sea coastline.
Read moreYemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels seize strategic Red Sea port city of Mocha
Earlier Sunday, several security sources also told AFP that the group had effectively encircled Taiz after cutting the main supply route to the government-held city.
The Houthi advance follows days of heavy fighting in and around the city of Taiz between the group and government forces.
“We were informed that the Houthis had taken control of the al-Safiya area, where they cut the main road and took control of the police station,” a police source in the area told AFP.
Three sources with the Yemeni military also confirmed Houthi control over the area and supply route, with the group effectively encircling Taiz city.
The military sources added that the Houthis had also halted traffic on the main road linking Taiz to Aden, with fighting in the area ongoing.
The city itself remains under the control of government forces but has long been besieged from the north, east and west by Houthi fighters and remains one of the main fronts in Yemen’s civil war.
“They’ve achieved the military objective of isolating Taiz from Aden, even if they haven’t fully taken control of it,” Farea Al-Muslimi, research fellow at the Chatham House think-tank, told AFP.
Saudi support
Elsewhere in Yemen, the Houthi’s Al-Masirah TV channel reported Saudi strikes in the northern governorates of al-Jawf and Saada, saying at least two people had been wounded.
The strikes come a day after Yemen’s government said its forces hit Houthi targets around the country, including in the capital Sanaa, the northwestern governorate of Saada and the group’s positions near Taiz in the southwest.
Read moreHouthis claim strike on oil facilty near Riyadh, accuse Saudi forces of pounding Yemen’s capital
The Yemeni government’s air capabilities however remain limited.
Since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 in support of the government, it has primarily been Riyadh’s forces that have carried out airstrikes against the Houthis.
Experts believe the recent operations have most likely been conducted by Saudi warplanes rather than the Yemeni air force.
Following several years of relative calm, Yemen’s war reignited in July against the backdrop of the widening Middle East war.
The country is one of the poorest in the world and remains gripped by a vast humanitarian crisis.
Fighting intensified in September as the Houthis launched a lightning offensive that saw them seize Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital shipping lane.
The Houthis have in parallel launched a blockade on Saudi energy exports, already squeezed by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Yemen’s war erupted in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa from the Saudi-backed government, before going on to take control of swaths of the country’s north.
Riyadh intervened in the war the following year as the head of the international coalition.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
