Yemeni Army Focuses on Taiz Front to Wear Down the Houthis
Government forces say they carried out 27 air strikes against Houthi positions and gatherings in an attempt to recapture areas they had lost, including strategic districts near Yemen’s western coast.
The Yemeni army announced that it had conducted 27 air strikes against Houthi positions and gatherings in the south-western governorate of Taiz.
According to the army, the strikes targeted missile depots, command-and-control centres, advanced supply and weapons distribution points, and military vehicles.
Government forces have recently concentrated their operations on the Taiz front despite opening other battlefronts. The area is strategically important because of its proximity to the western coast and its inclusion of the key Mokha district, which had served as a gateway for the Houthis’ advance towards the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
“The falcons of our air force carried out 27 precise and concentrated air strikes across the Taiz fronts, targeting an integrated military system belonging to the terrorist Houthi militia,” Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson Colonel Majed Abdullah al-Nazili said in a statement early on Friday.
According to al-Nazili, the targeted system included “a missile depot, command-and-control centres, advanced supply and armament points, gatherings of militia members, and military vehicles and equipment”.
He said the strikes hit targets on Al-Sittin Street north of Taiz city, in Bani Omar, on the Humayr front in Maqbanah district, east of Al-Wazi’iyah, and in Al-Ahkoum and Al-Athawir in Hayfan district.
The operations also targeted Al-Kadaha, Jabal Nouman, Al-Kurayfat, Aqabat Munif, Al-Tashrifat, Al-Aqroud, Samea and Al-Shaqab in Sabir Al-Mawadim district.
Al-Nazili claimed that the air strikes “achieved precise and direct hits”, destroying dozens of vehicles and military capabilities and putting large numbers of Houthi fighters out of action, either killed or wounded.
The strikes came as Yemen experienced its most significant military escalation in three weeks between government forces and the Houthi movement.
The Yemeni army also announced that fierce clashes had erupted on the northern Taiz front, according to a brief statement from the media centre of the army’s Taiz Military Axis.
Earlier on Friday, the Interior Ministry announced that Major General Mohammed Salem Abdullah al-Khawlani, chief of staff of the ministry’s Emergency Forces, had been killed in clashes with the Houthis on the Al-Kadaha front.
Despite its focus on Taiz, the Yemeni army continued operations on other fronts. Government forces announced that they had struck what they described as “high-value” Houthi targets in the capital, Sanaa, and the north-western governorate of Saada.
In posts on X, al-Nazili said army forces had “targeted high-value objectives in the capital, Sanaa”, without providing further details.
He added that government forces had also struck “11 high-value targets in Saada governorate”, but did not specify the weapons used.
The developments form part of a military escalation that began in July 2026, the most extensive since the period of relative calm that followed the April 2022 truce.
The pace of fighting accelerated in September, enabling the Houthis to seize several strategic centres in Hodeidah and Taiz governorates. These included the strategic port city of Mokha and Mayyun Island, which overlooks the international Bab al-Mandab shipping strait.
Government forces have responded by becoming more active on several fronts in an attempt to regain the initiative after weeks of military pressure.
The strategy aims to open simultaneous battlefronts and exhaust Houthi capabilities, limiting the movement’s ability to concentrate its forces on a single axis.
The intensified operations in Taiz are part of a broader effort to recover positions and areas recently lost by government forces, particularly Mokha because of its geographical and military importance.
The city is a principal gateway to Yemen’s western coast. Controlling it would give government forces an advanced position near the Red Sea shipping lanes and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Yemen has been at war since the Houthis seized Sanaa and several governorates in September 2014. A Saudi-led Arab coalition subsequently intervened in March 2015 in support of the Yemeni government.
