Yemeni army says 13 airstrikes target Houthi positions across fronts

Government forces report strikes

The Yemeni army said Thursday that its forces carried out 13 airstrikes and hundreds of attacks against Houthi positions, vehicles, weapons and reinforcements across multiple fronts, as fighting intensified in several provinces.

Majed Abdullah Al-Nazili, spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, said government forces taking part in the “Dawn of Yemen” operation had also conducted 67 drone attacks, 42 strikes with rocket launchers and 581 field-artillery operations in recent hours. The operations targeted Houthi gatherings, fortifications, firing positions, vehicles and military equipment on northern fronts, as well as in Al-Jawf, Marib, Al-Bayda and Taiz provinces and on southern and southwestern fronts.

The Taiz Military Axis, which is affiliated with the army, said in a statement that its forces, supported by popular resistance fighters, repelled a Houthi infiltration attempt on the Al-Aqroudh front in the south of the province after fierce clashes. Army artillery also targeted Houthi gatherings in the area, killing and wounding an unspecified number of the group’s members, according to the statement.

Fighting and civilian casualties in Taiz

Al-Nazili said government forces in Taiz continued to repel Houthi attacks and respond to infiltration attempts, while fierce fighting took place on the fronts in Marib. Nation’s Shield forces, the Giants Brigades and the National Resistance continued operations against Houthi attacks and infiltration attempts on southern and southwestern fronts, the statement said.

The spokesman said the operations left 219 Houthi commanders, fighters and supervisors killed or wounded. They also destroyed or damaged 103 pieces of engineering equipment, transport vehicles and armored vehicles, in addition to positions and fortifications.

The army accused the Houthis of targeting civilian sites and neighborhoods in the interim capital, Aden, striking homes in Taiz with ballistic missiles and mutilating the bodies of dead fighters. The group had not immediately commented on the allegations, while Al-Nazili said government forces would continue operations and take precautions to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said in a report Thursday that it had documented the killing of three civilians and injuries to 19 others in Houthi shelling and sniper attacks against residential neighborhoods in Taiz during the previous 73 hours. Its field team recorded 62 violations against civilians and civilian property during that period, along with the firing of 290 random projectiles at populated neighborhoods and villages.

The attacks damaged nine homes and seven civilian vehicles, the network said. It also documented 16 cases of abduction and enforced disappearance involving civilians, including patients, elderly people and two children, during Houthi raids on the Najd Qasim market in the Al-Misrakh district and the Al-Maqarema area in Al-Shamayatayn district, both in the south of the province.

Houthi claims of Saudi attacks

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced Thursday that the group had carried out four operations against oil facilities and military sites in Saudi Arabia using drones and ballistic missiles. Saree said the targets were Pumping Station No. 7 on the East-West oil pipeline, which was struck with a drone, and an oil facility in Yanbu, which was targeted with a ballistic missile.

The other reported targets were a military cargo aircraft at Sharurah Airport, which was targeted with a drone, and Khamis Mushait Air Base, which was struck with a ballistic missile. Saree claimed that the operations achieved their objectives, including a direct hit on the air base.

In a separate statement, Saree also claimed that the group had targeted Saudi oil company Aramco in the capital, Riyadh, with a drone, saying the attack achieved its objective.

Control of Taiz and wider war

Government forces control Taiz city, the provincial capital, and other areas. The Houthis have advanced in recent weeks across rural and coastal areas, including Al-Mokha, Al-Shamayatayn, Al-Ma’afer, Jabal Habashi and Al-Wazi’iyah.

The Houthis now control most of the province, while government forces have seen their areas of control shrink in rural and coastal parts, with some areas remaining contested, according to Anadolu’s correspondent. Taiz holds strategic importance because it lies between northern provinces, including Ibb and Sanaa, and southern provinces such as Lahj and Aden.

Transport routes and supply lines linking the interim capital, Aden, with central and northern provinces pass through Taiz. The province also stretches along the Red Sea coast, where the port of Al-Mokha is located near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and it is Yemen’s most populous province, accounting for 12% of the country’s population.

Military escalation between government forces and the Houthis resumed in July, leaving 12,000 people dead or wounded, according to UN reports. The escalation ended a period of relative calm that had prevailed since April 2022, deepening Yemen’s humanitarian crisis amid continued fighting and displacement.

Yemen has been at war since the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and several provinces in September 2014. An Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015 in support of the Yemeni government.