Yemeni forces claim strategic district amid intensified Houthi clashes

Military forces of Yemen’s internationally recognised government have been engaged in intense clashes with Houthi rebels across multiple fronts, most heavily in the Taiz and Hodeidah provinces and along the western Red Sea coast.

Yemen’s military said it recaptured Hais district, south of Hodeidah, an area linking the provinces of Hodeidah, Taiz and Ibb, according to Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.

The Presidential Leadership Council chairman, Rashad al-Alimi, said that Yemen’s armed forces are capable of restoring full control over the country’s territory, warning that the Houthis “will bear the consequences”.

Taiz “will not be a corridor” for the group’s backers, he added, in reference to Iran.

He said the Houthis’ “miscalculations” would lead to their “complete collapse.”

The latest fighting continues the tit-for-tat attacks that broke out last week, with air raids and ground offensives between government troops and the Iran-backed rebels.

Fayad al-Numan, deputy undersecretary of Yemen’s Ministry of Information, said troops had also captured dozens of Houthi fighters during fighting in the nearby al-Jarahi district, where government forces later launched a counteroffensive.

Yemeni forces continued strikes on Houthi positions in areas across Taiz and Lahj on Saturday.