Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen's presidential council, announced on Sunday the start of a counter-offensive against the Houthis, ordering his forces to retake territory held by the Iran-backed group. The declaration came as security sources said the Houthis had cut the main supply route to the besieged government-held city of Taiz.

Alimi orders forces to retake Houthi-held territory

Al-Alimi, who leads the Saudi-backed government, announced the operation in a statement, saying:

In the same statement, he ordered the armed forces, security forces and all military formations to begin carrying out their assigned missions, in accordance with the approved plans, until the country is liberated from the Houthi militia. The operation is the latest major escalation in the war, coming a month after a rapid Houthi offensive seized large swaths of the Red Sea coastline.

Houthis cut Taiz's main supply route

Earlier on Sunday, several security sources said the Houthis had effectively encircled Taiz after cutting the main supply route to the government-held city. An unnamed police source in the Taiz area said the group took control of the al-Safiya area, where it cut the main road and seized the police station. Three sources with the Yemeni military confirmed Houthi control over the area and the supply route.

The military sources said traffic had also been halted on the main road linking Taiz to Aden, with fighting in the area ongoing. The advance followed days of heavy fighting in and around the city. Government forces still hold Taiz, which Houthi fighters have long besieged from the north, east and west, making it one of the main fronts in Yemen's civil war.

Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Chatham House think-tank, told AFP the Houthis had achieved their objective even without full control of the city: "They've achieved the military objective of isolating Taiz from Aden, even if they haven't fully taken control of it".

Strikes reported on both sides of the front

The Houthis' Al-Masirah TV channel reported Saudi strikes in the northern governorates of al-Jawf and Saada, saying at least two people were wounded. A day earlier, Yemen's government said its forces hit Houthi targets around the country, including in the capital Sanaa, the northwestern governorate of Saada and positions near Taiz.

Yemen's government has only a limited air force. Since the Saudi-led coalition entered the war in 2015 on the government's side, airstrikes against the Houthis have largely been flown by Riyadh's forces, and experts believe the recent operations were most likely conducted by Saudi warplanes rather than the Yemeni air force.

How the war reignited

After several years of relative calm, Yemen's war reignited in July 2026 against the backdrop of the widening Middle East war.

• •2014: the war broke out when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa from the Saudi-backed government and then took control of swathes of the country's north.
• •2015: Riyadh intervened as head of the international coalition in support of the government.
• •September: the Houthis launched a lightning offensive that seized Yemen's entire Red Sea coast, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital shipping lane.
• •In parallel, the group launched a blockade on Saudi energy exports, which were already squeezed by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
• •Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world and remains gripped by a vast humanitarian crisis.

The military sources said fighting in the area of the severed route was still ongoing as al-Alimi announced the start of operations.