Yemen's government declares major operation against Houthis

Yemen's Saudi-backed government says it is launching a major military campaign to recapture all areas of the country controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis.

The internationally recognised government's armed forces would press the offensive "until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia," Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi said in a televised address. 

A military spokesperson later called on the Houthis to lay down their weapons.

The Houthis, known formally as Ansar Allah, have held Yemen's capital Sanaa and parts of the north-west since 2014. 

They have so far withstood a series of attacks over the years by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and their Western allies.

The movement launched a surprise offensive last month which captured the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait and some 150 km of coast on the Red Sea, giving the Houthis new leverage over the international shipping route.

That advance also opened a new front in the wider US-Israeli war launched in February against Iran.

Houthis say they struck Saudi Arabia

As the Yemeni government, known as the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), made its announcement, the Houthis said they had launched missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais area.

They claimed the attacks caused major fires and were in response to 50 Saudi-led air and missile strikes in Yemen in the past 12 hours.

There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi Arabia.

Mr Alimi said the decision to launch the military campaign came after all chances of de-escalating the conflict had been exhausted.

New front in mideast war

The US is already providing intelligence to support Riyadh's operations in Yemen, while some regional and European nations are providing defensive military aid to the kingdom.

The United States' war on Iran has decimated a layer of Iranian military and political leadership, but has also entangled Washington in a new engagement in the Middle East.

Yemen has been mired in conflict for years, with an array of local armed groups backed by competing regional and international actors.

After a popular uprising that was part of the Arab Spring movements in 2011, the Houthis, an armed group of Zaidi Shi'ite Muslims, captured Sanaa.

The government has controlled the south and east of the country since the Houthi takeover. 

Saudi Arabia entered Yemen's civil war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition in support of the PLC, but failed to defeat the Houthis.

A truce agreed between the warring parties in 2022 largely held until this year.

Houthis at the front door

The Houthis have maintained the initiative on the ground since seizing control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in their lightning offensive last month that saw government forces collapse.

Bab el-Mandeb is the southern exit passage of the Red Sea, a key shipping route between the Mediterranean and Asia.

In the last 48 hours, the Houthis have also made gains against government near Yemen's Taiz, military sources said, advancing on the last road between the city and Aden. 

Houthi control over the Taiz-Aden road would lead to an effective siege of the city, Yemen's third-largest, inhabited by hundreds of thousands of civilians.

The city is important not just for its strategic location; Alimi is from the region, and a siege of Taiz would amplify an already-dire humanitarian situation in the country.

Three in four families in parts of Yemen are going hungry from the impact of the surge in fighting, ‌which has displaced tens of thousands of people and disrupted supplies to millions, the World Food Programme said last week.