More than 70 people have reportedly died during 24 hours of intense clashes between Yemen’s Houthi movement and government forces in the southwestern province of Taiz, according to military and medical sources. Both sides have also exchanged claims over air and missile attacks.
A Yemeni government military official, speaking anonymously, said more than 20 government troops and around 10 allied local fighters were killed, while dozens more were injured. The official said heavy fighting took place on several fronts as the two sides battled for strategic positions.
The heaviest clashes reportedly occurred in rural areas extending toward Yemen’s Red Sea coastline. Government forces were attempting to stop Houthi advances and prevent the group from strengthening its position near the strategically important Bab al-Mandab Strait.
In Aden, government forces said their air-defense systems intercepted several Houthi drones approaching important facilities and public-service locations. Government military spokesperson Majid al-Nuzaili claimed that government forces had conducted 474 airstrikes and other military operations against Houthi positions. He said the operations had killed or wounded about 1,540 Houthi fighters and damaged or destroyed 216 pieces of military equipment.
A medical source linked to the Houthis, also speaking anonymously, reported that more than 40 Houthi fighters had been killed and dozens wounded during the same period. According to the source, many of the casualties occurred when airstrikes hit vehicles carrying reinforcements toward combat zones in rural Taiz.
Meanwhile, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea claimed that Saudi aircraft and missiles had carried out 94 strikes across several Yemeni provinces, including Sanaa, Saada, Taiz, Hajjah, Amran and Ibb. He alleged that some civilian locations were targeted and said the attacks caused casualties, although he did not provide a specific death toll. Sarea said the latest attacks brought the Houthis’ reported total number of air and missile strikes since the latest escalation to 1,350.
Saudi-led coalition spokesperson Turki Al-Maliki, meanwhile, said three ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis toward Khamis Mushait in Saudi Arabia had been intercepted and destroyed.
The latest violence forms part of a wider escalation around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a crucial maritime passage connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and serving as an important route for global shipping.
Fighting has intensified in Taiz and neighboring Lahj following the reported Houthi capture of the Red Sea port of Mocha on Sept. 10 and Mayyun Island, also known as Perim, on Sept. 11. The developments have increased the group’s presence around the strategic strait and shifted some of the conflict’s fiercest ground battles into nearby mountainous areas.
The renewed clashes have also coincided with Houthi attacks targeting Saudi Arabia and what the group describes as Saudi air and missile strikes against Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen. The escalation has revived cross-border fighting that had largely eased following a UN-brokered truce in 2022.
Yemen’s current conflict began in late 2014, when the Houthis seized Sanaa and large parts of northern Yemen. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition intervened militarily in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.