Yemen Launches All-Out Houthi Offensive as Government Expands War From Bab el-Mandeb to Nationwide Control
By Uzair Saleem — SCN News
ADEN — Yemen's internationally recognized government formally launched a major military campaign against the Houthis on Sunday, transforming preparations for a counteroffensive along the Red Sea into a far more ambitious attempt to restore government authority across the entire country. Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad al-Alimi ordered the armed forces, security services and allied formations into action after declaring that opportunities for de-escalation had been exhausted. The announcement marks a significant expansion of the war because the government's stated objective is no longer simply reversing recent Houthi territorial gains but recovering all remaining territory outside state control.
The declaration follows weeks of military preparations involving Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces after the Houthis made their largest territorial advances in years. The movement swept down much of Yemen's Red Sea coastline last month and seized positions around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, giving it leverage over one of the world's most strategically important shipping routes. Saudi-backed forces had been preparing options to reverse those gains, but Sunday's announcement places those plans inside a broader campaign intended to challenge Houthi control far beyond the coast.
Al-Alimi said government forces would continue operations until state institutions could operate across Yemen's national territory. He presented the decision as the end of a prolonged period in which the government and its regional allies had attempted to preserve negotiations and avoid returning to full-scale warfare. His government accuses the Houthis of using that period to rearm, expand territorially and increase attacks against neighboring countries and international shipping.
The shift significantly changes the military objective discussed only days earlier. Saudi and Yemeni planners had considered a concentrated operation designed to retake Bab el-Mandeb and surrounding coastal territory, potentially allowing Riyadh to secure the Red Sea shipping corridor without reopening every major front of Yemen's civil war. Declaring that government authority must instead be restored nationwide creates a much larger military challenge involving Houthi strongholds that have resisted years of Saudi-led military pressure.
Sanaa sits at the center of that challenge. The Houthis seized the Yemeni capital in 2014 and subsequently established control over much of the country's heavily populated northwest, forcing the internationally recognized government southward. Saudi Arabia intervened the following year with an Arab coalition but was unable to dislodge the movement despite years of airstrikes and ground fighting.
Government forces were already striking deeper Houthi positions as the new campaign was announced. The Yemeni military said it attacked targets in Sanaa, the northern Houthi stronghold of Saada and the southwestern province of Taiz, indicating that operations are extending across several fronts rather than concentrating solely on the Red Sea coast. Saudi-backed forces have also been using aircraft, drones, artillery and missiles as fighting intensifies around government-held territory.
Taiz may become the immediate test of whether the government can translate its nationwide declaration into battlefield momentum. Houthi forces have been pushing around the city's outskirts and attempting to control strategic roads connecting Taiz with Aden, where key institutions of the internationally recognized government are based. Losing those routes could isolate government forces and consolidate Houthi control over territory linking their northern heartland with recent coastal gains.
Government forces have responded with intensive strikes and ground operations around the city. They say they have repelled Houthi attacks and recovered several positions, although battlefield casualty claims from both sides remain difficult to independently verify. Local tribes have also joined government forces in some areas, potentially giving the anti-Houthi coalition greater manpower and local knowledge around a city that has resisted Houthi pressure for more than a decade.
The strategic importance of Taiz extends beyond control of the city itself. The governorate links Yemen's north and south while also reaching toward the Red Sea coast and the approaches to Bab el-Mandeb. Control of its roads and high ground can therefore influence both inland military movements and access between Aden, government-held territory and the western coastline.
Bab el-Mandeb remains the most internationally consequential part of the battlefield. The narrow waterway connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, forming part of the maritime route linking Asia with Europe through the Suez Canal. Its importance has increased further during the wider Middle East conflict because disruption around the Strait of Hormuz has placed greater pressure on alternative energy and commercial shipping routes.
The Houthis' rapid coastal offensive dramatically altered that strategic balance. Their capture of roughly 150 kilometers of Red Sea coastline and positions around Bab el-Mandeb gave the movement leverage extending far beyond Yemen's borders. Saudi Arabia consequently faced not only a hostile armed movement on its southern frontier but one capable of threatening an international shipping corridor at a time of exceptional pressure on global energy markets.
Sunday's declaration suggests Riyadh and its Yemeni allies now believe restoring the pre-offensive front line would not be sufficient. If government forces merely recover Bab el-Mandeb while leaving the Houthis dominant across northern Yemen, the movement could retain the military capacity to threaten the coast again. A broader campaign is therefore intended to change the underlying balance of power rather than repeatedly contest the same strategic corridor.
That ambition carries substantially greater risk. The Houthis have spent more than a decade developing missiles, drones, fortified positions and experienced ground forces while receiving support from Iran. Previous Saudi-led campaigns demonstrated that air superiority alone does not easily translate into permanent territorial control across Yemen's mountainous northern regions.
The Houthis have already signaled that Saudi territory could become part of their response. The movement said it launched ballistic missiles and drones toward Saudi Aramco facilities, including sites around Riyadh and Khurais, after accusing the Saudi-led coalition of carrying out extensive strikes against Houthi positions. Saudi Arabia had not immediately confirmed the claimed attacks, and the extent of any damage remained unclear.
The possibility of retaliation creates a second battlefield beyond Yemen. Saudi Arabia must simultaneously support offensive operations, protect oil infrastructure and cities from missiles and drones, and secure Red Sea shipping against further attacks. Those competing requirements could become more demanding if the government campaign moves north toward areas the Houthis consider central to their rule.
The United States and other Saudi partners consequently have an important supporting role even without joining the ground offensive. Washington has provided intelligence and targeting assistance, while regional allies have supplied defensive equipment and military expertise. Saudi Arabia has also been strengthening air and missile defenses around critical infrastructure in anticipation of a larger confrontation.
The campaign nevertheless remains fundamentally dependent on Yemeni ground forces. Anti-Houthi factions include government troops, tribal fighters and other armed formations whose political objectives have not always aligned. Saudi Arabia will have to maintain coordination among those groups if the operation expands simultaneously across the coast, Taiz and other fronts.
That fragmentation was one reason the earlier concept of a limited Bab el-Mandeb operation appeared attractive. A focused coastal campaign required fewer political and military compromises than an attempt to restore government control over the entire country. Al-Alimi's declaration now places those internal divisions directly inside a much more ambitious national objective.
The government is trying to address that challenge by framing the offensive as restoration of the state rather than retaliation against communities living under Houthi rule. Al-Alimi told residents of Sanaa, Saada, Hodeidah and other Houthi-controlled areas that they were not the targets of the campaign and urged civilians to stay away from military positions and supply routes. He also offered an amnesty route for fighters willing to lay down their weapons.
Al-Alimi has paired the military campaign with promises of restoring government services in territory recovered by his forces. His administration says state salaries, roads, electricity, water networks and other public services should return as areas change hands, while reconstruction programs would help displaced families return. The approach reflects recognition that capturing territory militarily will have limited value if the government cannot establish functioning institutions afterward.
That task could prove almost as difficult as the fighting itself. Yemen has endured more than a decade of war, economic collapse, displacement and damage to essential infrastructure, while rival authorities have developed separate systems of administration. Re-establishing a single government across newly captured territory would require money, security and political agreements alongside military success.
The humanitarian risks are already rising. Renewed fighting around Taiz has displaced large numbers of civilians and disrupted roads used for food, medicine and other supplies. A nationwide offensive involving densely populated Houthi-held regions could deepen one of the world's longest-running humanitarian emergencies if fighting spreads faster than relief agencies can respond.
The scale of the declared objective also raises the question of whether diplomacy has been postponed or effectively displaced by battlefield calculations. Regional governments had been exploring political options intended to prevent another full Saudi-Houthi war, including discussions involving Pakistan and Türkiye. Sunday's announcement indicates that the Yemeni government has concluded military pressure must now precede any meaningful settlement.
That does not necessarily eliminate future negotiations. Territorial gains could eventually be used to improve the government's position in talks, particularly if the Houthis lose strategic coastline or face pressure around major northern cities. The immediate strategy, however, is clearly based on changing the military balance before returning to a political process.
For the Houthis, the calculation runs in the opposite direction. Their recent territorial expansion provided leverage over both Yemen's government and international shipping, giving them little incentive to surrender gains without significant military pressure. Their ability to strike Saudi infrastructure also provides a tool for raising the cost of Riyadh's involvement as government forces advance.
Sunday therefore represents more than the formal start of an offensive that had already been expected. Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies had been preparing to break the Houthi grip on Bab el-Mandeb; Yemen's government has now declared an objective extending all the way to restoring state authority across Houthi-held territory, including the political heartland the movement has controlled for more than a decade.
The difference is enormous. Recovering a maritime chokepoint would have been a limited strategic campaign with a measurable geographic objective. Attempting to recover the whole country means reopening the fundamental question Yemen's war has failed to resolve since 2014: who governs the state.
That is why the next battles around Taiz and the Red Sea coast will matter far beyond the territory immediately changing hands. If government forces can reverse the Houthi advance, the campaign could begin shifting a military balance that appeared to favor the movement only weeks ago. If they cannot, Sunday's declaration risks turning a planned counteroffensive into another prolonged phase of a civil war that neither side has previously been able to win.