File image.
Yemen’s Houthis (Ansar Allah) cut a vital road linking the government-held city of Taiz with Aden on October 4, tightening their encirclement of one of the country’s most important population centers as President Rashad al-Alimi ordered a major military operation to retake territory held by the group.
Four security sources told AFP that Houthi forces seized the al-Safiya area, took control of a local police station and halted traffic on the main road between Taiz and Aden.
Three Yemeni military sources confirmed the move, saying it effectively isolated Taiz from the government’s interim capital. The city itself remains under government control.
“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.
The road is described by Reuters as the last major route between Taiz and Aden, meaning Houthi control of it would place the city under an effective siege and further complicate the movement of government forces and supplies.
The battlefield developments came as al-Alimi announced a nationwide military campaign against the Houthis 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,” he said.
Al-Alimi’s announcement formalized a counteroffensive that Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies had been preparing as the Houthis made repeated advances in Taiz and along the western coast. Reuters reported that Saudi forces are expected to provide much of the aerial support while Yemeni forces conduct ground operations.
Yemeni government forces said during the day that they had carried out 97 targeting operations against Houthi reinforcements on the Tor al-Baha and Taiz fronts using aircraft, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers.
Government military spokesman Col. Majed Abdullah al-Nazili said the operations targeted at least 260 Houthi fighters and destroyed or disabled 44 military vehicles. Those figures could not be independently verified.
Click to see full-size map.
The Houthis also announced a new attack on Saudi Arabia on October 4, saying they had launched missiles and drones against Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais area.
The group’s military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the operation came in response to what he described as 50 Saudi-led coalition air and missile strikes in Yemen during the preceding 12 hours and claimed the Houthi attacks caused major fires. These claims were confirmed by videos posted to social networks.
The renewed fighting follows the collapse of a fragile period of calm and the Houthis’ rapid advances along Yemen’s western coast and toward strategic routes connecting the Red Sea with the country’s south. The latest push around Taiz threatens to further isolate the city and could turn the road linking it to Aden into a major battleground as the government begins its promised counteroffensive.
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