Yemen’s Government Bets on a Counteroffensive as Houthi Gains Tighten the Siege

Yemen’s Government Bets on a Counteroffensive as Houthi Gains Tighten the Siege
Yemen’s internationally recognized government has opened a new military campaign to reverse a rapid Houthi advance, setting up a high-stakes contest between an embattled state seeking to restore its authority and a rebel movement that has recently seized crucial territory and widened the war’s regional reach.

Presidential Council chairman Rashad al-Alimi presented the offensive as a fight to reassert national control, declaring that operations would continue to “retake the remaining territories of the republic” and extend state authority nationwide. In a televised address, he said the campaign would continue “until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia,” while a military spokesman urged the Houthis to surrender.

The government’s objective is sweeping, but its position is increasingly fragile. The Houthis still control Sanaa and much of the populous northwest, and their recent lightning offensive captured the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and large sections of the Red Sea coast. That advance gives the movement leverage over one of the world’s key maritime chokepoints while exposing the government’s reliance on Saudi military support.

The immediate battlefield pressure is centered on Taiz. Houthi forces reportedly seized the al-Safiya area and cut the main route linking the government-held city with Aden, potentially tightening a siege that has persisted for years. Military sources cited in a separate report said the rebels had also taken strategic hilltops near the last road to the southern coast, threatening to isolate Yemen’s third-largest city and worsen food shortages.

The Houthis, meanwhile, frame their campaign as retaliation. Their spokesman said the group launched missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco facilities in Riyadh and Khurais in response to dozens of Saudi-led strikes in Yemen—claims Riyadh did not immediately confirm. The competing narratives reveal the central tension: the government promises liberation and restored sovereignty, while the Houthis are converting battlefield momentum and regional escalation into political leverage. With civilian routes disrupted and fighting reportedly killing more than 70 people in a single day, the counteroffensive risks becoming another intensification rather than a path to resolution.