Houthis advance within 80 km of Aden as fighting threatens key road

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have moved to within 80 km, or 50 miles, of Aden, four military sources told Reuters on Monday, November 2. The advance puts them at their nearest position to the internationally recognized government's main stronghold since 2015, when Houthi fighters briefly entered the city before being forced out.

Government troops and Houthi forces were fighting on Monday at a military camp near the entrance to Tur al-Bahah district, a major approach to Aden. The camp lies about 50 km from Lahj's provincial capital. According to the sources, the Houthis began attacking government positions in Al-Maqatirah three days earlier, captured the entire district and pushed government forces back toward Tur al-Bahah.

The mountainous district overlooks the road between Aden and Taiz, making the advance a threat to strategic positions along a crucial transport corridor in southwestern Yemen. The military sources said the Houthis could now move around government forces stationed along the mountain range above the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Government troops had driven Houthi fighters out of that area only weeks earlier.

The fighting follows an offensive launched in September, during which the Houthis advanced along Yemen's Red Sea coast and captured territory bordering the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The waterway is among the world's most important shipping passages and carries Saudi oil exports bound for Asia. Meanwhile, attacks on Aden, the government's temporary capital since 2015, have increased in recent weeks. The Houthis struck its airport on Wednesday after issuing an evacuation warning, and the presidential palace was hit in October.

The latest offensive has created another volatile front in the wider US-Israeli war with Iran, pulling the Houthis and Saudi Arabia further into the regional conflict. Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen's government, have escalated. The Saudi-led coalition has in turn intensified strikes against Houthi positions inside Yemen.

The renewed violence has broken a UN-brokered truce reached in 2022 that had largely stopped major attacks. Yemen's war began in 2014 after the Houthis forced the government out of Sanaa.

Houthi official Hamid Rizq published a video that he said showed the group's fighters entering Souq al-Rabouh in Maqatirah district. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage. Yemen's information minister did not immediately answer a request for comment.

The route through the district had provided the final connection between government-held areas and Taiz during the war. Yemen's third-largest city has been surrounded since early October, when the Houthis severed its main road south toward Aden. The siege has forced more than 100,000 people from their homes and left the city facing shortages of food, fuel and medicine.