Yemen’s internationally recognized government has launched a major military offensive against the Houthis, backed by an intensified Saudi led air campaign involving 100 fighter jets, as fighting spreads across the Red Sea coast and the strategic Bab el Mandeb Strait.
Yemen has entered a new and potentially more dangerous phase of its long running war after forces loyal to the internationally recognized government launched a major offensive against the Houthi movement, supported by an intensive Saudi led coalition air campaign.
The offensive, announced by Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, comes after a rapid Houthi expansion along Yemen’s western coastline and around the strategic Bab el Mandeb Strait. Saudi backed forces say they have already retaken important positions in the Dhubab district overlooking the waterway, while the Saudi led coalition says it has provided extensive air support against Houthi targets.
The operation has been named Operation Dawn of Yemen by the Yemeni government. President of the Presidential Leadership Council Rashad al Alimi said the military campaign was intended to recover territory controlled by the Houthis and restore state institutions, including ultimately challenging Houthi control over the capital, Sanaa.
The Saudi led coalition said Monday that 100 fighter jets had participated in the opening phase of the operation and that its aircraft were providing continuous air support to Yemeni government forces on the ground. The coalition also claimed that 324 high value targets had been destroyed since the beginning of the campaign. Those battlefield claims have not been independently verified.
Saudi Led Air Campaign Targets Houthi Positions
The Saudi led coalition has moved rapidly to support the new Yemeni ground offensive with air power.
Coalition spokesman Major General Turki al Maliki said the operation involved approximately 100 fighter aircraft and that the coalition had established what it described as air protection over the Bab el Mandeb Strait. Coalition aircraft have also targeted Houthi positions in and around Sanaa and along the Red Sea coastline.
The scale of the air campaign represents a significant escalation after years in which Yemen’s conflict had remained largely frozen along established front lines.
Saudi Arabia has long supported Yemen’s internationally recognized government, while the Houthis have maintained control over Sanaa and large parts of northern and western Yemen since seizing the capital in 2014.
The latest escalation follows a period of renewed fighting that ended a four year period of relative calm. The renewed conflict has now developed into a wider confrontation involving missile attacks, drone operations, territorial advances and intensified airstrikes.
Yemeni Forces Move Toward Bab el Mandeb
One of the most important objectives of the new Saudi backed offensive is the Bab el Mandeb Strait.
The narrow maritime passage connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean. It is one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints, with around 12 percent of global trade passing through the waterway.
The strategic importance of Bab el Mandeb has increased further because other maritime routes in the region have also been affected by the wider conflict.
Control of the Yemeni side of Bab el Mandeb gives whoever holds the surrounding territory an important ability to threaten shipping moving between the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean.
That makes the current battle about more than Yemen’s internal civil war.
It has become a fight over one of the world’s most important commercial corridors.
Reuters reported Monday that Saudi backed Yemeni forces had seized large parts of the Dhubab district overlooking Bab el Mandeb. Military and government sources said the forces were asserting control over the area with heavy Saudi led air support. Houthi aligned media disputed the claims and denied that government forces had made the reported advances.
The conflicting accounts underline the difficulty of independently verifying battlefield developments while fighting remains active.
Houthis Had Advanced Along Yemen’s Red Sea Coast
The Saudi backed offensive follows a series of major Houthi advances.
In recent weeks, Houthi forces moved down the Red Sea coast and captured strategically important territory, including the port city of Mokha and several islands near Bab el Mandeb. The group also captured Turbah, a strategically important town connected to the road between Taiz and Aden.
The capture of Turbah was particularly significant because of its position on a major supply route.
The town sits along a road linking Taiz with Aden, the temporary seat of Yemen’s internationally recognized government. Houthi advances around the area have threatened government supply routes and increased pressure on forces defending Taiz.
The Houthi advance toward Taiz has therefore created pressure on several fronts simultaneously.
While Saudi backed forces are attempting to regain the Red Sea coastline, Houthi forces have continued operating around Taiz and other areas where government forces remain vulnerable.
The result is a multi front battlefield in which territorial gains on one front could directly affect the ability of either side to reinforce another.
Why Bab el Mandeb Matters to Saudi Arabia
For Saudi Arabia, control of the Red Sea has become increasingly important.
The kingdom has traditionally relied heavily on maritime infrastructure connected to the Red Sea, particularly as an alternative route for energy exports when Persian Gulf shipping faces disruption.
The Bab el Mandeb Strait provides the southern gateway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Any sustained threat to the waterway could therefore affect shipping, energy markets and supply chains well beyond Yemen.
The situation has become more serious because the wider Middle East conflict has already placed pressure on other maritime routes.
The renewed Houthi campaign against Saudi interests has included missile and drone attacks, while the group has also threatened shipping connected to Saudi Arabia. Analysts have warned that increased Houthi leverage over Bab el Mandeb could create significant economic and security consequences for the Red Sea region.
For Riyadh, preventing the Houthis from consolidating control around Bab el Mandeb is therefore both a military and economic objective.
United States Provides Support but Avoids Direct Combat
The latest offensive also has an international dimension.
United States officials have said Washington is providing support to Saudi Arabia, including intelligence, target identification and planning assistance, according to officials cited by the Associated Press. However, the United States has not directly entered the new operation with its own combat strikes.
This distinction is significant.
The United States previously supported the Saudi led coalition during earlier phases of the Yemen war, but Washington later reduced its direct involvement.
The current approach allows the United States to provide military intelligence and planning assistance while avoiding a new direct American air campaign against the Houthis.
The position also reflects the broader complexity of the regional conflict, where the Red Sea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen have increasingly become connected to wider military tensions across the Middle East.
Giants Brigades Join the Offensive
The ground campaign is not being conducted by a single Yemeni military formation.
Several forces aligned with the internationally recognized government are involved in the fighting.
The Giants Brigades, a powerful Yemeni formation operating in the south, announced that it had begun a military operation against Houthi forces around the Bab el Mandeb area. Government aligned forces have also reported attacks against Houthi positions in Dhubab and other coastal areas.
This creates another layer of complexity for the Saudi backed campaign.
Yemen’s anti Houthi camp has historically contained multiple political and military factions with different objectives.
Some forces are primarily focused on defeating the Houthis, while others have their own political agendas concerning the future of southern Yemen.
The ability of these factions to coordinate their operations will therefore be a major factor in determining whether the new offensive can maintain momentum.
Houthis Continue to Fight Back
Despite the Saudi backed offensive, the Houthis remain capable of launching attacks.
The group has continued using missiles and drones against Saudi targets and has disputed claims that government forces have achieved major breakthroughs.
Houthi aligned sources have also rejected some reports concerning government advances around Bab el Mandeb.
The group has demonstrated during previous phases of the Yemen war that territorial losses do not necessarily translate into strategic defeat.
The Houthis continue to hold Sanaa and large areas of northern and western Yemen, including densely populated territory. Their ability to operate missiles and drones gives them additional ways to pressure Saudi Arabia even when their ground forces are under attack.
This means that securing the coastline may be considerably easier than eliminating the Houthi military threat altogether.
Yemen War Enters Another Major Phase
Yemen’s war began its current phase in 2014 when Houthi forces seized Sanaa and pushed the internationally recognized government out of the capital.
Saudi Arabia entered the conflict militarily in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition supporting the Yemeni government.
Years of fighting produced extensive destruction and one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
A truce in 2022 significantly reduced major fighting and created hopes that Yemen could eventually move toward a political settlement.
That relative calm has now collapsed.
The latest escalation has already produced hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries and large scale displacement. The Associated Press reported that at least 959 people had been killed and more than 4,200 injured in the latest fighting, while more than 174,000 people had been displaced inside Yemen. More than 3,000 others had crossed into Djibouti, according to the UN migration agency.
The humanitarian consequences could worsen if the fighting expands around Taiz, the Red Sea coast and other densely populated areas.
What Happens Next in Yemen?
The immediate objective of the Saudi backed coalition and Yemen’s internationally recognized government appears to be the reversal of recent Houthi territorial gains.
Retaking positions around Bab el Mandeb would give government forces greater control over the Red Sea coastline and could reduce the Houthis’ ability to threaten maritime traffic from territory overlooking the strait.
But the larger objective announced by Yemen’s leadership is considerably more ambitious.
The government says the military campaign is intended to recover remaining territory controlled by the Houthis and restore state institutions. Government forces have also spoken about eventually challenging Houthi control of Sanaa.
Achieving that objective would require operations far beyond the Red Sea coastline.
The Houthis have spent more than a decade building military and political structures across northern Yemen. They have also survived previous Saudi backed military campaigns.
The current offensive therefore represents a major escalation, but its final outcome remains uncertain.
Red Sea Shipping Faces a New Test
The battle for Yemen’s western coastline could have consequences far beyond the battlefield.
The Bab el Mandeb Strait is a critical connection between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Disruption there can affect vessels travelling toward the Suez Canal and European markets, while also creating additional pressure on global energy transportation.
The current military campaign therefore comes at a particularly sensitive moment for international shipping.
If Saudi backed forces maintain control over key coastal positions, the offensive could reduce immediate Houthi control around the strait.
If the Houthis retain the ability to launch missiles and drones from inland positions, however, control of coastal territory alone may not remove the threat to maritime traffic.
That makes the coming days critical for both Yemen and the wider Red Sea region.
A New Battle for Yemen’s Strategic Coast
The Saudi backed coalition’s new assault against the Houthis marks one of the most significant escalations in Yemen since the 2022 truce.
The immediate battle is centred on territory, particularly around Dhubab, Mokha, Taiz and Bab el Mandeb.
The wider confrontation is about control of Yemen, Saudi security and access to one of the world’s most important maritime corridors.
Saudi air power is now supporting Yemeni ground forces in an attempt to reverse the Houthi advances of recent weeks. The coalition says it has deployed 100 fighter jets and struck hundreds of targets, while Yemeni government forces say they have regained important positions overlooking Bab el Mandeb.
The Houthis, however, remain entrenched across large parts of Yemen and continue to possess the ability to conduct missile and drone attacks.
The coming phase of the conflict will determine whether the Saudi backed offensive becomes a sustained campaign capable of reversing the Houthi expansion or another major escalation in Yemen’s long running war.
For now, the battle around Bab el Mandeb has placed Yemen once again at the centre of a rapidly changing Middle Eastern security crisis, with the outcome carrying implications not only for the country’s competing factions but also for Saudi Arabia, regional powers, global shipping and international energy markets.
– Tamrah News War Updates