Arabic version: تصاعد القتال في تعز مع تنازع القوات اليمنية على أراضٍ رئيسية
According to Al Jazeera, Yemen’s internationally recognised government and the Iran-backed Houthis are engaged in a fierce struggle for Taiz governorate, a strategic area in the country’s southwest. Rashad al-Alimi, chief of the Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council, announced on Sunday the start of a major offensive to regain lost territory, raising expectations of further battles around Taiz.
Taiz, Yemen’s most populous governorate, has nearly 4.5 million people. Its western coastal area includes Mocha and the strategically important Bab al-Mandeb strait. The Houthis captured these coastal regions in a surprise campaign in early September, alarming observers over the potential effect on international shipping and cutting key supply routes for Taiz. Taiz City, which remains under government control, lies in contested highlands between Houthi-held northern areas and government-held southern areas.
Fighting has focused on Jabal Han, a mountain west of Taiz City that overlooks a key road. Control of the mountain could enable attacks on people and supplies entering the city from the southwest. Al Jazeera reported that government forces had conducted dozens of air strikes on Houthi positions, while Houthi fighters sought to advance under artillery, tank, mortar and Katyusha rocket fire. The government said it had captured several areas, including a fort in Samaa, and repelled attacks at Jabal Han and Hazran; Al Jazeera could not verify the claims.
The renewed fighting has displaced nearly 200,000 people in Yemen since early September, most of them from Taiz governorate, according to Yemen’s Executive Unit for IDP Camps Management. The closure of major roads into Taiz City has intensified fears of a humanitarian disaster. UNHCR and the World Health Organization have warned that the fighting is putting Yemen’s fragile healthcare system in peril. Nearly half of Yemen’s population of 34 million faces acute food insecurity, the UN says, while about half a million people suffer severe malnutrition.
