Jakarta, ThedailyID — Yemen’s internationally recognized government has announced a military operation to reclaim territories controlled by the Houthi movement.
The announcement came Sunday, October 4, from Rashad Al Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council.
Al Alimi said government forces would work to expand state authority across the country. He ordered the armed forces and security units to carry out an approved military plan.
“We have instructed the armed forces, security forces and all military formations to begin carrying out their assigned tasks until the country is liberated from the Houthis,” Al Alimi said, as quoted by Al Jazeera on Monday, October 5.
He added that state institutions would remain fully mobilized until the mission was completed.
The announcement followed a weekend of intensified military operations. Yemen’s government forces reportedly carried out 257 operations targeting Houthi positions, movements and military capabilities.
Government spokesperson Majed Abdullah Al Nazili said the operations killed at least 700 Houthi members. The claim was not independently verified in the source.
The Saudi-led coalition also reported 97 operations against Houthi reinforcements on Sunday. The operations targeted areas around Tor Al Baha and the Taiz axis using fighter jets, drones, artillery, missiles and snipers.
The Houthis, meanwhile, claimed they had launched ballistic missiles and drones at two Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and Khurais. Saudi Arabia had not immediately commented on the claim.
London-based defense analyst Ibrahim Jalal told Al Jazeera that the new government operation had pushed the conflict into a new phase.
He said peace and de-escalation efforts had failed to resolve the conflict. According to Jalal, the balance of power had remained uneven for years.
Fighting between the Houthis and Yemeni government forces has intensified since a 2022 ceasefire collapsed in July, according to the source.
In mid-September, the Houthis reportedly captured the port city of Mocha and strategic islands near the Bab Al Mandeb Strait. Anti-Houthi forces later stabilized the front line.
Yemen has been engulfed in civil war since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014.
