Yemen's presidential council head announces military operations against Houthis

The conflict between the Houthis and forces aligned with the Saudi-backed government had largely paused after a 2022 truce, but fighting has resumed this year. Hostilities escalated after the Houthis declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in July and began attacking Saudi territory and shipping, while also making territorial gains along Yemen's Red Sea coast. Saudi Arabia has responded with air strikes in Yemen and has backed government forces.

The Houthis are a military, political, and religious movement that rules over most of northwest Yemen and has disrupted global trade and energy markets with attacks on cargo ships and tankers in the Red Sea. They began firing on ships in November 2023, saying it was in support of Palestinians during Israel's war in Gaza. The group emerged in the 1990s as a revival movement for the Zaydi sect of Shi'ite Islam. In 2014, they seized the capital Sanaa. Saudi Arabia led a military intervention against the Houthis in early 2015 to restore the government, triggering a major humanitarian crisis. The UN brokered a truce in 2022 that maintained peace until this year. The group's attacks on Red Sea shipping have significantly disrupted global trade, forcing cargo ships to take a long, expensive route around Africa. Iran champions the Houthis as part of its regional "Axis of Resistance", though its ties are less clear than with other groups like Lebanon's Hezbollah. The US says Iran has armed, funded, and trained the Houthis with help from Hezbollah, but the Houthis deny being an Iranian proxy.