Yemen's internationally recognised government said its forces turned back a Houthi assault in Taiz province on Thursday, the latest clash in a corridor this desk flagged days earlier as sliding back toward open war [1][2].
The government's 4th Infantry Hashd Brigade repelled a Houthi attack on positions at the al-Mafalis front, south of Haifan, in southeastern Taiz province, military officials said [1]. An official of the Tor al-Bahah military axis, a formation affiliated with government forces, said the Houthi militias had 'suffered heavy losses,' without giving figures [1]. Waddah al-Dubeish, a spokesman for the government forces, said air defences had engaged Houthi reconnaissance drones [1].
The tone from the top hardened. Rashad al-Alimi, who chairs the Presidential Leadership Council, warned that the rules of engagement had changed. 'From now on, there will be no action undertaken by the Houthi militias without a comprehensive response or deterrence,' he said [1].
Thursday's fighting followed a heavier week. Houthi missile and drone attacks on the provinces of Hadramout and Marib killed at least 30 government soldiers and wounded 15 others the previous Thursday, according to the government's account [2]. Renewed shelling of Marib followed a Friday attack that killed two civilians and wounded 14 more, Yemen's Health Ministry said [2]. The Houthis said they were targeting a military camp on the city's outskirts [2]. Independent verification of battlefield casualty counts is not available.
The stakes concentrate in Marib. The city hosts more than 2 million of Yemen's nearly 5 million displaced people [2], which means a full return to front-line combat would put a displacement crisis, not only an army, in the line of fire.
Elisabeth Kendall, a Middle East specialist and president of Girton College at Cambridge, put the trajectory plainly. 'The civil war in Yemen never really technically ended,' she said, adding that 'all the warning signs are there' [2]. She described a 'looming possibility' of the country tipping back into full-scale conflict [2].
