Yemen’s Houthis continue advance towards key city of Taiz

Six Counties / 4 October 2026 Sinn Fein vows to cooperate with any Drumcree Parade police investigation 4 October 2026 East Africa / 4 October 2026 Ethiopian federal forces retake Mekelle airport from Tigrayan fighters 4 October 2026 South Asia / 4 October 2026 India and Pakistan summon diplomats after two killed in border incident 4 October 2026 Eastern Europe / 4 October 2026 Medvedev spells out Russia’s conditions for peace with Ukraine 4 October 2026 East Africa / 4 October 2026 Somalia's president says his country will not accept Israeli presence ‘under any circumstance’ 4 October 2026 Round-up / 4 October 2026 World in brief: October 4, 2026 4 October 2026 YEMEN’S Houthi forces have captured more territory in south-western Yemen, taking a key town in a blow to the Saudi-backed forces as they advanced yesterday toward a strategic provincial capital in the region.

The fall of the town of Turbah came on Sunday, shortly before the internationally recognised government announced a major military operation against the Houthis. 

The escalation between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi forces has revived the country’s civil war after a four-year ceasefire.

Turbah sits on a main road linking the provincial capital of Taiz with the port city of Aden, which serves as an interim seat of Yemen’s alternative Saudi-backed government. 

Earlier, the Houthis seized several villages and areas on Taiz’s outskirts in a series of advances, paving the way for the rebels to encircle Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city.

The Houthis made a swift push on the country’s western coast on the Red Sea in early September. 

The Houthis captured the strategic city of Mokha and several Red Sea islands, gains that enabled them to control the Yemeni side of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a crucial chokepoint through which about 12 per cent of global trade passes.

In their weekend announcement on Sunday, the Saudi-backed forces said that it was mobilising troops across government-held areas.

Rashad al-Alimi, head of the ruling Presidential Leadership Council, said in a televised speech that the operations were aiming at “recovering the remaining territories” controlled by the Houthis. 

He called for the international community to provide support to his government.

Hours after al-Alimi’s declaration, a Saudi military spokesman, Major General Turki al-Malki, vowed “full operational support” to the Yemeni government forces, until the Houthis are “eliminated.”

The latest flare-up began in mid-July, when the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of bombing the airport in Sanaa to prevent the landing of an unauthorised Iranian flight. 

The Houthis responded with missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government forces in the country.

They also announced a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea and attacked several Saudi-linked vessels.

Then in September, they intensified their campaign, storming down the Red Sea coast in their biggest land grab in years.

The latest bout of violence has killed more than 800 people and wounded over 3,600 others, the United Nations has said. The fighting has forced more than 145,000 people to flee their homes inside Yemen, according to the United Nations migration agency.