Yemeni military launches sweeping strikes on Houthis as government vows to reclaim lost territory

Yemen's government military announced a wide-ranging series of strikes against Houthi forces on Monday, a day after the government declared a new campaign aimed at retaking the entire country. The ambitious goal comes a month after the Saudi-backed government lost large stretches of the Red Sea coastline and territory around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a critical chokepoint for global shipping.

A military spokesman said forces had carried out more than 1,000 strikes targeting Houthi artillery and rocket launcher positions, defensive fortifications, access routes, reinforcement paths, supply lines and other logistics assets.

Houthi advance continues

Despite the scale of the government's strikes, they have not stopped the Houthis' momentum on the ground. On Sunday, the group effectively encircled the key city of Taiz after severing the main supply route connecting it to Aden, the interim seat of government.

Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the development was significant but cautioned it was too early to call it a decisive turning point. Taiz city remains under government control, though it has long been besieged from the north, east and west by Houthi fighters, making it one of the war's most persistent front lines.

The Houthis have been fighting the internationally recognised government for years, and the offensive launched in September has already killed hundreds of fighters on both sides. UN figures show more than 145,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.

While Yemen's war predates the broader Middle East conflict triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Iran, the Yemeni front has in recent weeks become the most active theatre in that wider confrontation. Saudi Arabia, which has led an anti-Houthi coalition since 2015, has also been drawn further in, with the Houthis repeatedly claiming attacks on Saudi territory and declaring a blockade on shipping in the Red Sea.

Yemen remains one of the world's poorest countries and has faced a severe humanitarian crisis since civil war broke out in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of the north before Saudi Arabia's coalition intervened militarily in 2015.