Yemen Conflict Escalates: Has Full-Scale War Returned?

Fighting in Yemen continues to escalate as the internationally recognized government mounts a military campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi group — also known as Ansar Allah — which controls part of the country's territory.

Addressing the UN Security Council on Friday, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said the country had in effect fallen back into "full-scale war."

Government forces are specifically targeting the recapture of the strategically vital Bab al-Mandeb strait at the entrance to the Red Sea — a key trade chokepoint that has become an important alternative route to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have all but halted shipping.

According to the United Nations, at least 46 civilians have been killed and more than 130 others wounded since August, many of them children. The UN migration agency (IOM) says more than 200,000 people have been displaced since the fighting escalated in September.

Intense battles on multiple fronts have left human rights groups fearing Yemen has essentially returned to civil war, following a relatively quiet period under a 2022 ceasefire that had succeeded the long civil war that erupted in 2014.

Analysts say that, against the backdrop of the US-Iran war, the worst fighting in Yemen in years threatens to destabilize the region further.

The latest situation on the ground

Saudi-backed Yemeni forces are advancing on the Houthis to retake areas around Bab al-Mandeb — a crucial trade route for global shipping in and out of the Red Sea. Riyadh is increasingly dependent on this route to export oil after the US-Iran war closed the Strait of Hormuz.

On Sunday, the Yemeni government announced the launch of the "Yemen Dawn" campaign, aimed at retaking all remaining Houthi-held territory, including the capital Sanaa.

On Saturday, the government said it had carried out more than 2,750 precision airstrikes in the previous 24 hours, "neutralizing" more than 1,400 Houthi fighters.

Armed forces spokesman Colonel Majid al-Nuzaili, in a statement carried by the Saba news agency, said the operations also targeted high-value military assets deep inside Houthi-held territory. He added that ground forces had "successfully broken" Houthi defense lines, retaken tactically important positions, consolidated battlefield gains and continued to press the offensive as planned.

The Bab al-Mandeb strait became a new front in the US-Israeli war against Iran when the Houthis announced a blockade of ships linked to Saudi Arabia in July. The Houthis said the move was retaliation for Saudi blockades of Yemen, though analysts view it as a calculated step to increase Iran's leverage in stalled talks with the United States — a close ally of Riyadh.

Fighting is now raging around the strategic southern cities of Mocha and Dubhab, on the Red Sea coast, which are vital to controlling Bab al-Mandeb. The Houthis, who have controlled Sanaa and parts of northwestern Yemen since 2014, seized the area in September, gaining control of the strait, though both sides currently claim control of the shipping lanes.

The Houthis, equipped with sophisticated weapons including ballistic missiles, have also targeted Saudi Arabia with missile and drone attacks. On Friday, Saudi aviation authorities said three Saudi citizens, including a pilot, were killed and others wounded in Houthi attacks on Riyadh's international airport — the first such deaths in the kingdom since fighting reignited. Several airlines suspended flights.

Coalition forces also heavily bombed Sanaa on Friday, with multiple injuries reported, including a child. Both sides are also battling for control of Taiz.

What led to the original civil war?

The civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa and imposed their own administration in the capital. The takeover took place amid discontent with the ruling government and after the revolution three years earlier.

A coalition of armed forces and local armed groups backed by Saudi Arabia launched a military campaign and restored the internationally recognized government in Aden. The fighting killed between 150,000 and 227,000 people and displaced millions. The Houthis control much of the north, while the Yemeni government controls southern areas.

A UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022 helped calm the fighting and allowed aid to reach people in need — who had faced famine since 2016.

In 2023, the Houthis — part of Iran's "Axis of Resistance" alliance of proxy armed groups — began disrupting shipping in the Red Sea in response to Israel's war in Gaza. In March this year, the Houthis fired missiles at Israel amid the war against Iran, formally joining the US-Israel-Iran war that began in February.

Tensions escalated when the group announced a naval blockade of Saudi ports and vessels passing through the Bab al-Mandeb strait in July, breaking the period of relative calm in Yemen since 2022. After that announcement, the Houthis launched a lightning ground offensive on Mocha, pushing coalition Yemeni forces out of the strategic port city.

In September, Houthi forces swept through and seized territory along the western coast and the Bab al-Mandeb strait, including the strategically located island of Mayyun in the strait. On October 4, Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Yemeni government's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), announced a military campaign to "restore state authority."

Is this a return to war?

Analysts say the scale of the fighting means Yemen has fallen back into civil war, with both sides under scrutiny for targeting civilians.

When UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg declared the country had in effect fallen back into "full-scale war," civilians, including women and children, were bearing "the burden of escalating violence."

The envoy stressed the need for the UN Security Council to once again support urgent mediation, though analysts point out that recent gains by Yemeni government forces may make them more determined to press the campaign than to agree to a peaceful settlement. Grundberg warned, however: "Unless war becomes Yemen's permanent reality, this is the time to consider political strategies."

Reporting from Sanaa, Al Jazeera correspondent Yousef Mawry said: "The situation is starting to look like the war waged by the Saudi-led coalition in 2015, when Sanaa and several other provinces were hit by relentless attacks day and night."

According to Mawry, multiple sites in Sanaa have been targeted, including Sanaa International Airport. Several industrial facilities were also hit, including a chip factory in the north and a foam manufacturing plant in the south. At least four telecommunications facilities in the capital and across Houthi-controlled areas were struck. Mount Attan in Sanaa also came under 10 rounds of airstrikes.

Mawry reported that, according to Saudi coalition officials, the airstrikes destroyed 136 military targets in Houthi-controlled territory, including the group's military positions, launch pads and radar. "Meanwhile, the Houthis accuse Saudi Arabia of targeting public infrastructure and telecommunications facilities, warning the campaign risks pushing the country back into a humanitarian crisis similar to 2015-2022," Mawry said.

Is the US acting in Yemen?

The United States, which had previously said it did not want to be involved in the Yemen conflict, on Friday still called on the Houthis to halt attacks on Saudi Arabia and the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and demanded Iran stop supporting the group.

Speaking at the UN Security Council session on Yemen, Jeff Bartos, US Ambassador to the UN for Management and Reform, said Washington was "deeply concerned" by the Houthis' recent escalation, including attacks on civilian infrastructure and airports.

"The pattern could not be clearer. The Houthis act as Tehran's instrument to threaten freedom of navigation, undermine regional stability and sow terror among innocent civilians," Bartos said. "We demand the Houthis stop attacks on the legitimate government of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and we demand Iran end all support for the Houthis," he added.