Military Escalation in Sanaa and Taiz After Key Crossing Closure
Yemen’s internationally recognised government forces carried out nearly 500 military operations over a 24-hour period, resulting in 1,540 Houthi casualties, according to military statements reported by aljazeera.com. The intensified fighting involves missile, drone, and artillery attacks targeting Houthi positions across the country, alongside loud explosions reported in the Houthi-held capital of Sanaa.
Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili, Yemen’s military spokesman, stated on X that the armed forces are executing operations against legitimate vital military targets in Sanaa. Al-Nazili emphasized that the military remains capable of carrying out strategic attacks against the Houthis. Most of the recent casualties occurred in the Taiz governorate, where government operations successfully halted a Houthi advance.
Intense Fighting and Civilian Toll in Taiz
The city of Taiz has emerged as a central focal point of the renewed conflict. Al Jazeera’s Maha Ali, reporting from Taiz, noted that the region is experiencing continuous escalation with intense fighting across several fronts, particularly on the western outskirts of the city. The Houthis deployed an exceptionally heavy volume of fire during the assault, and the sound of ongoing artillery fire targeting western areas remains audible.
Residents are urgently appealing for evacuation as shelling persists. Civilian casualties have been documented in the fighting, including a baby who died from shrapnel injuries after a shell struck a residential area in Dhubab. Meanwhile, on the Samea front, Houthi forces advanced into mountainous terrain on Friday, prompting fierce ongoing clashes and a scale of civilian displacement not witnessed in more than a decade.
Closure of the Al-Houban Border Crossing
Amid the deteriorating security situation, government forces closed the critical al-Houban crossing in Taiz on Saturday. Ammar al-Sami’i, the army’s media official, told aljazeera.com that the road had previously been shut for nine years before reopening to civilians in 2024 for humanitarian reasons. The crossing serves as one of Yemen’s most vital connections between territory held by opposing sides, linking Houthi-held al-Houban to government-held Taiz city.
Security concerns drove the decision to close the crossing following an infiltration attempt by the Houthis, attacks in the vicinity, and a broader military build-up. This escalation follows the breakdown in July of a fragile truce struck between the government and the Houthis in 2022.
Broader Conflict Dynamics and Displacement
The current military spike follows a mid-September offensive in which Houthi forces swept across parts of western Yemen, seizing the port city of Mocha and strategic islands in the Bab al-Mandeb strait. Anti-Houthi forces have since worked to stabilise front lines, though the renewed hostilities have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Yemen has remained embroiled in civil war since the Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014, forcing the internationally recognised government to retreat to Aden.
