Yemen's government says it carried out 20 airstrikes on Houthi targets in Taiz
Yemen's internationally recognised government said on Friday its warplanes carried out 20 strikes on Houthi targets in Taiz province, as fighting there reached its most intense level since the 2022 truce collapsed.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government said on Friday that its warplanes carried out 20 airstrikes over the previous three hours against Houthi targets in the southwestern province of Taiz, the latest move in the most serious escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned Houthis since a UN-brokered truce largely halted cross-border attacks in 2022.
A military spokesperson said the strikes targeted Houthi movements, personnel, vehicles and military equipment in Taiz province, Reuters reported. The Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson said in a post on X that the 20 “precise airstrikes” had achieved “direct hits on enemy targets and inflicted losses on the militia’s elements, equipment, and military movements”.
Army spokesman Majed al-Nuzaili also announced a “high-value targeting operation” in the capital Sanaa and strikes on 11 targets in the northwestern province of Saada, with an army statement putting the number of strikes on an “integrated military system” in Taiz at 27. The statement named Humair, Bani Bakari, Samea, al-Aqroud, 60th Street, al-Amour, Midi Bani Hassan and al-Wazi’iyah among the areas hit. There was no immediate comment from the Houthi group.
Fighting was widespread across Taiz, and authorities ordered the closure of all roads leading into the province, designating them military operational areas, six military sources told Reuters. Around 19 roads were affected, including the main route running from southern Sanaa to Taiz.
The raids came days after the Saudi-led coalition said the Houthis had attacked the Taibah power distribution station in Madinah, which supplies electricity to the Prophet’s Mosque; a Houthi military source denied the claim via the Houthi-run Saba news agency. Reuters noted that tens of thousands of people have already been displaced and that the escalation threatens Red Sea shipping lanes and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
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