Yemen government announces offensive as Houthis expand Red Sea foothold

Yemen’s internationally recognised government has announced a major military operation to retake territory held by the Houthi movement, escalating a conflict that has already disrupted the Red Sea’s strategic shipping route. President Rashad al-Alimi said the campaign would continue until the country was “liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia”. The Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, have controlled Sanaa and much of north-western Yemen since 2014.

The government’s announcement follows a Houthi offensive last month that captured the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and about 150 kilometres of Red Sea coastline, according to ABC News Australia. The advance has given the group greater leverage over a waterway linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. A Houthi military spokesperson was later reported to have urged the movement to surrender its weapons.

At the same time, the Houthis said they had launched missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco facilities in Riyadh and the Khurais area. They claimed the strikes caused major fires and were retaliation for 50 Saudi-led air and missile attacks in Yemen over the previous 12 hours. Saudi Arabia had not immediately confirmed those claims.

The government says all prospects for de-escalation have been exhausted. Its forces are backed by Saudi Arabia, which intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition. That campaign failed to defeat the Houthis, and a truce that largely held from 2022 has broken down amid the latest fighting.

The reports describe a widening international role. The United States is providing intelligence to support Saudi operations, while some regional and European countries are supplying defensive aid. The South China Morning Post said Pakistan is expected to undertake defensive functions, potentially including air and missile defence, radar, early warning, counter-drone operations, electronic warfare, intelligence and command support.

That role remains under negotiation. Analysts cited by the Post said Pakistani troops were not expected to participate directly in planned ground offensives and would instead allow Saudi forces to concentrate on the campaign against the Houthis. Other specialists said Riyadh wanted support across a wider range of operations, but that Pakistan might not accept such an extensive commitment.

Islamabad has not publicly detailed its role. The Post reported that Pakistan deployed about 8,000 troops, JF-17 aircraft and Chinese-built HQ-9 air-defence systems to Saudi Arabia in April under a mutual defence agreement signed in 2025. Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said Pakistan was bound to defend Saudi Arabia and would make available whatever means it had.

Claims that Pakistani-Saudi teams are already operating alongside Yemeni forces were attributed to a Saudi political scientist and were not independently confirmed in the supplied material. The conflict is threatening both regional infrastructure and civilians. DW reported that Houthi attacks have endangered Saudi energy facilities and disrupted the East-West pipeline, while control of the Bab el-Mandeb has put shipping under pressure.

ABC reported recent Houthi gains near Taiz and warned that control of the last road to Aden could place the city under siege. The World Food Programme said three in four families in parts of Yemen were going hungry as fighting displaced tens of thousands and disrupted supplies.