Yemen’s civil war has intensified, with the internationally recognized government announcing a military operation aimed at retaking territory captured last month by the Iran-backed Houthis.

The Houthis, a Shiite armed group, continued their own offensive, reportedly seizing more towns in southwestern Taiz province near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

In a televised speech on Sunday, Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said the government had ordered “military operations to restore the remaining territory of the republic and extend state authority nationwide.”

The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Major General Turki al-Maliki, said the coalition would continue supporting Yemeni government forces. Saudi Arabia first intervened in the civil war in 2015 after the Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, the previous year.

Houthi-aligned media reported later on Sunday that the group had captured the town of Turbah and the districts of Shamayatayn and Samea, as well as the Taiz-Aden road.

Last month, the Houthis launched a major offensive along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, capturing the strategic port city of Mokha from government forces. They subsequently took control of Perim, also known as Mayyun, an island lying in the middle of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The advances gave the group control of key positions around the narrow waterway linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s most important shipping routes. The Houthis later expanded their gains to other Red Sea islands.

Large-scale fighting had previously died down after a UN-brokered truce took effect in April 2022. Hostilities reignited in July amid the US-Iran war and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, after Yemeni government forces struck Sanaa airport to prevent an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation home from the funeral of Iran’s late supreme leader from landing. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia for the strike and retaliated with attacks on the kingdom.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW