Houthis push to expand territory as tensions with Saudi Arabia rise
By VIVIAN NEREIM
The Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen was engaged in fierce battles against fighters backed by Saudi Arabia on Sunday, as the group steps up its push to expand its territory, according to local officials.
The ground fighting is the latest sign of how the war between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis that resumed in July is escalating. On Saturday, the armed group said it had launched missiles and drones at Riyadh, the Saudi capital, and at oil facilities, in retaliation for hundreds of Saudi airstrikes and other attacks inside Yemen.
On Sunday, battles were raging in al-Wazi’iyah, al-Madaribah and al-Arah, mountainous territory in the southwest of Yemen, according to Abdul Basit al-Baher, an army officer with the Saudi-backed government. If the Houthis gain control of the areas, they could cut off the city of Taiz from the southern capital of Aden and lay siege to Saudi-backed forces in Taiz, he added.
Fierce battles have also taken place in recent days around Kahboub, a mountainous territory that overlooks the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a choke point for international shipping, according to two other Yemeni officials. The waterway became a critical trade route for Saudi Arabia after Iran effectively blockaded the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.
Saudi officials have not responded to repeated requests for comment on the war. The government has not acknowledged carrying out recent airstrikes in Yemen or responded to a Houthi claim that the group shot down a Saudi fighter jet last week.
In a statement about the attack on Riyadh, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, a spokesperson for a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen, said that it “holds the inherent right to take appropriate measures,” but provided no details.
One question hanging over Saudi Arabia’s deliberations is whether the United States, the kingdom’s most powerful ally, will increase military assistance against the Houthis, or become directly involved.
Saudi officials have been clear that the kingdom does not want to fight the Houthis alone. That is especially true because the earlier, yearslong military campaign that Saudi Arabia led against the group turned into a quagmire. The conflict damaged the kingdom’s reputation, strained its finances and contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis from violence, hunger and disease.
President Donald Trump rebuffed an appeal this month by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, for increased military support to battle the Houthis, according to officials with knowledge of the conversations.
Around the same time, the Houthis seized control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline, giving the group greater control over shipping in the waterway.
“The Houthis are trying to consolidate gains on the West Coast and to take additional territory, particularly in Taiz and Marib governorates,” said April Alley, a Yemen expert and senior fellow at The Washington Institute.
“What I am seeing now is the Houthis using a dual-track approach to expansion: military and narrative,” she added. “From the narrative perspective they are saying: We are all Yemeni, let’s push the Saudis out and then find solutions.”
The Houthis and Yemeni government forces have been at war since 2014, when the Houthis seized the country’s capital, Sanaa. Soon after, a Saudi-led military coalition began a bombing campaign to try to restore the government to power, plunging the impoverished nation into a devastating conflict. A fragile truce, reached in 2022, has unraveled amid the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
The fighting reignited in July after the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of bombing Sanaa’s airport. The Saudi-backed government claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was trying to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing.
Soon after, the Houthis declared a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.
For years, Yemen has been effectively divided into two states, with the Houthis in control of much of the north and the south nominally under the authority of an internationally recognized government, which depends heavily on Saudi Arabia for financial and military support.
The militia, however, has increasingly referred to itself as the legitimate government of Yemen.
Last week, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi political official, said in an interview that the group “assures everyone that it is concerned with liberating every inch of Yemeni territory.” He dismissed Yemeni government officials as “Saudi mercenaries.”
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