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Rashad al-Alimi stated in the address that the government had exhausted all chances for de-escalation with the Iran-aligned Houthis before ordering the operation whose explicit goal is the restoration of state control over the capital and remaining rebel-held provinces. A military spokesman separately announced the beginning of the liberation campaign with strikes on artillery positions defensive fortifications and supply routes across multiple regions. The move comes as government forces seek to reverse gains the Houthis made during a lightning offensive last month that placed them in control of the Bab al-Mandab strait and roughly 150 kilometres of coastline according to Reuters reporting on the conflict.
Al-Alimi thanked Saudi Arabia for its support in the effort and called on regional allies to back the Presidential Leadership Council as operations expand. The chairman described the campaign as a strategic push that would continue until the country is liberated from what he termed the terrorist militia. Military officials placed the number of troops involved in the tens of thousands while confirming that more than 1,000 strikes had already targeted Houthi assets in Sanaa Saada and other highland areas a figure corroborated across multiple regional wire services.
The Houthis have held Sanaa and much of the northwest where most Yemenis live since ousting the government in 2014 an event that triggered years of civil war and eventual Saudi-led intervention the following year. Their recent advances which included the seizure of key ports have heightened concerns over international shipping through the Red Sea a chokepoint that carries roughly 15 percent of global seaborne trade according to data compiled by the World Bank. Fighting in the past month alone has killed hundreds of combatants on both sides with each side reporting losses in the dozens during individual clashes.
Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Colonel Majed al-Nazili called on Houthi fighters to lay down their weapons and rejoin national ranks warning that the current operation would not be limited in scope. Government forces have already conducted strikes against what the spokesman described as vital targets in Sanaa while Houthi-affiliated media reported dozens of air raids across the capital and surrounding districts. The escalation follows Houthi claims of attacks on Saudi facilities including an Aramco site in Riyadh that preceded the government announcement.
The conflict has intersected with wider regional tensions including recent US and Israeli actions against Iranian targets that have turned Yemen into an active front according to assessments by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Al-Alimi emphasised that the campaign would extend state authority to every province currently under Houthi influence a goal that would require sustained coordination between ground units air support and allied forces. Officials have not released a timeline for the operation but indicated that initial phases focused on disrupting Houthi reinforcement lines and logistics networks.
Previous attempts to dislodge the Houthis from Sanaa have met with limited success despite years of aerial bombardment and ground operations by the Saudi-led coalition. The current offensive builds on those efforts while incorporating lessons from the group’s rapid September advance that exposed vulnerabilities in government supply chains. Humanitarian organisations have warned that renewed fighting around densely populated highland areas could worsen the country’s existing food insecurity which already affects more than half the population according to United Nations estimates.
