sanaa
\nThe leader of Yemen\u2019s Saudi-backed government announced the beginning of a major military operation against the Iran-backed Houthis on Sunday, aimed at seizing the \u200cterritory under their control.
\nRegional and western officials had told Reuters earlier this week that Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies were planning to launch an assault on the Houthis, with the Saudis leading aerial combat and Yemeni forces fighting on the ground.
\n\u201cToday, I announce the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory,\u201d Yemeni \u200bPresident Rashad al-Alimi said in a televised address.
\nThe Houthis, meanwhile, said they had launched ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais area \u200bof Saudi Arabia, claiming the attacks caused major fires, in response to what they said were 50 Saudi-led air and missile strikes on \u2060Yemen in the past 12 hours.
\nThere was no immediate confirmation from Saudi Arabia.
\n\u2018Opportunities for de-escalation exhausted\u2019
\nAl-Alimi said the decision to launch the counteroffensive came after all opportunities for de-escalation had been \u200bexhausted, accusing the Houthis of responding to efforts to calm the conflict with further mobilisation and escalation.
\n\u201cOur position today is to assume the national responsibility of confronting the Houthi militia, after \u200ball opportunities for de-escalation have been exhausted,\u201d he said.
\nAl-Alimi said he had ordered the armed forces, security forces and all military formations to begin carrying out their assigned tasks under approved plans.
\nSaudi Arabia entered neighbouring Yemen\u2019s civil war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition in support of the internationally recognised government, which the Houthis had driven out of the capital Sanaa.
\nAl-Alimi thanked Saudi Arabia for its support, saying the \u200bkingdom had \u201cstood alongside Yemen in the darkest circumstances,\u201d and called on Yemen\u2019s regional allies and international partners to support the country, its armed forces and state institutions.
\nThe US is already \u200bproviding intelligence to support Riyadh\u2019s operations in Yemen, while some regional and European nations are providing mainly defensive military aid to the kingdom, six people with knowledge of the Saudi preparations told Reuters.
\nA truce agreed \u200cbetween the \u2060warring parties in 2022 largely held until this year, when the Houthis launched missile and drone attacks on Saudi shipping and oil infrastructure in a spillover from the Iran war.
\nHouthis\u2019 lightning offensive
\nThe Houthis have so far maintained the initiative on the ground, weeks after seizing the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait in a lightning offensive down the coast that saw government forces collapse.
\nBab el-Mandeb is the southern exit passage of the Red Sea, a key shipping route between the Mediterranean and Asia that has assumed even more importance this year as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, \u200bwhich has been effectively closed by the \u200bIran conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
sanaa The leader of Yemen\u2019s Saudi-backed government announced the beginning of a major military operation against the Iran-backed Houthis on Sunday, aimed at seizing the \u200cterritory under their control. Regional and western officials had told Reuters earlier this week that Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies were planning to launch an assault on the Houthis, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":103899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103909,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103884\/revisions\/103909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}