Yemen's internationally recognised government and the Iran-backed Houthis are locked in a fierce struggle for the Taiz governorate, a key strategic area in the country's southwest. Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council, announced the start of a major offensive on Sunday to regain lost territory, with further fighting around Taiz expected.
Taiz governorate is Yemen's most populous region, home to nearly 4.5 million people. Its flat western coastal areas sit on the Red Sea and include the port city of Mocha and the strategically important Bab al-Mandeb strait. The Houthis captured these coastal regions in a surprise lightning campaign in early September, raising fears the group could choke off international shipping through the strait and cutting key supply routes to Taiz.
The governorate sits between Yemen's Houthi-controlled north and the government-held south. Its capital, Taiz City, remains under government control and is a key source of legitimacy for the government, whose state institutions are based in the southern coastal town of Aden. The Houthi advance threatens to isolate government forces there.
Ibrahim Jalal, a senior researcher and policy adviser, told Al Jazeera that the Houthis were seeking to secure their coastal Red Sea gains up to Bab al-Mandeb and intensify pressure on Lahij, Aden and the south. "The Houthis seek to expand their territorial control at the moment along the former boundaries of northern Yemen, or to say, that they want to remove all little pockets of resistance to consolidate control," he said.
Taiz has been one of the most heavily contested cities of the war, which began after Houthi forces captured the capital Sanaa in September 2014. Thousands of civilians have been killed in a devastating Houthi siege and assault on the city, with government forces driving back repeated attacks between 2015 and 2022.