Yemen's Government Forces Launch a Counteroffensive and Say They Intend to Retake Sanaa

Forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognized government have launched counterattacks against the Houthi movement, and Major General Samir al-Sabri, the deputy defense minister, said on state television that the decision has been made to retake Sanaa, the capital the Houthis seized more than a decade ago. Fighting has intensified in al-Bayda, which connects eight governorates in the country's center, and in al-Jawf, which borders Saudi Arabia and leads toward the Houthi stronghold of Saada.

A spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition said Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have wounded 73 civilians, with strikes on sites in Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran. The Houthis describe their operations as responses to the coalition's air campaign and to the ground offensive. i24NEWS reports that more than 300 people have been killed in the renewed offensives with clashes across the entire front. Casualty figures in Yemen come from the parties to the conflict and cannot be independently confirmed.

The fighting marks a significant escalation since the United Nations brokered a truce that halted large-scale fighting in 2022. It also removes the assumption that has supported Gulf energy pricing since then, which is that Saudi Arabia's southern border and its energy infrastructure sit outside the active war. Brent crude has risen roughly 11 percent over the past month, and the Yemeni front is one of several inputs into that move.