AL-MUKALLA: Yemeni government forces carried out 81 military operations against the Houthis over the past 24 hours, as a senior commander vowed a “decisive” battle to retake Sanaa and other areas from the Iran-backed militia.
Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson Col. Majed Al-Nazili said on Thursday that government forces had killed a number of Houthi fighters and destroyed military vehicles in attacks on militia positions across several flashpoints.
He said the operations were part of the army’s “deterrence” campaign and came in response to Houthi missile and drone attacks on ports in the Red Sea city of Mokha, as well as residential areas and camps for internally displaced people in Marib.
In a post on social media platform X, Al-Nazili reiterated the army’s commitment to “defending the security and sovereignty of Yemen and preserving the dignity of its citizens, and not allowing the implementation of any foreign agendas on the entire national territory,” in an apparent reference to Iran, which the government accuses of using the Houthis as a proxy.
“He affirmed the state’s determination to restore its institutions, extend its authority over all Yemeni territory, and end the suffering of the Yemeni people,” the post said.
Al-Nazili’s pledge came a day after Presidential Leadership Council member and National Resistance commander Tareq Saleh vowed to retake Sanaa and other Houthi-held areas in a “decisive” battle.
“We are talking about a battle that, if it begins, will be decisive, God willing. We will restore our dignity and state institutions, and we will retake Sanaa and Hodeidah, and fully restore the state,” Saleh said in a speech to local officials in Mokha on Wednesday.
Saleh said the Houthis had struck Yemen’s western regions, including Mokha and its strategic seaports, with 56 missiles and 44 drones in recent days.
He repeated accusations that Iran was pushing the Houthis to escalate militarily in the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab to gain leverage in its confrontation with the US.
“The Houthi escalation is an Iranian escalation, directed by the Revolutionary Guard, aimed at imposing a siege on the people of Yemen and closing the ports of Hodeidah and Taiz,” he said.
“This is Iran’s war, not the Yemenis’ war. It (the Houthi militia) is an Iranian project, a project of the Revolutionary Guard. Iran is maneuvering in the Strait of Hormuz and wanted to extend its maneuvers to the Bab Al-Mandab Strait.”
Saleh said any future confrontation between government forces and the Houthis would differ from previous rounds of fighting because of new military tactics and weapons, including drones, which he said had inflicted significant losses on the militia.
“The balance has changed, and the introduction of new weapons, especially drones, has disrupted the Houthis’ and Iran’s calculations. Their bodies and funerals are everywhere,” he said.
Saleh also strongly denied Houthi accusations that Yemeni government forces were collaborating with the US and Israel, saying the militia was using such claims to justify its military escalation.
“They lured the average citizen in under the guise of fighting America and Israel. There is no America or Israel, and there is no communication whatsoever. America only gives us empty words,” he said.
The latest round of escalation in Yemen began early this month when the Houthis launched waves of drones and missiles at government military camps and key ports in Hadramout, Marib, Hodeidah and Taiz, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens.
