ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 11– Yemen’s internationally recognized government said Monday it will respond to continued Houthi attacks, as an intensifying wave of missile and drone strikes across government-held areas raises the risk of large-scale fighting.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), said government forces are better prepared to confront the latest escalation and will no longer allow the Houthis to “dictate” the timing and scope of military confrontations, according to the government-run Saba news agency.
During a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh with ambassadors of countries supporting Yemen’s political process, al-Alimi said the government had sought to preserve the relative calm that followed the 2022 UN-brokered truce but will not allow its commitment to peace to provide the Houthis with an opportunity to launch attacks without consequences.
“The state did not initiate this escalation, nor did it seek it,” al-Alimi was quoted as saying by Saba.
He said the recent attacks showed that the military and political situation has changed, stressing that strikes on Marib, Hadramout and the western coast will no longer go “without cost.”
His remarks came after days of intensified Houthi attacks on government forces and infrastructure in the oil-rich provinces of Marib, Hadramout and Shabwa, as well as the western coastal city of Mocha.
The Houthis have sharply intensified missile and drone attacks in recent weeks against government-held areas in Yemen and targets in neighboring Saudi Arabia, a key backer of the Yemeni government.
The group announced a maritime ban on Saudi-linked shipping in July and has since claimed attacks on Saudi-linked oil tankers in the Red Sea as well as energy facilities inside the kingdom.
The Houthis have claimed that their attacks on government forces were in response to what they described as Saudi-backed military buildups and mobilization in Yemen, while portraying strikes on Saudi territory as retaliation for what they called a blockade of Houthi-held areas.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 in support of the Yemeni government.
A UN-brokered truce took effect in April 2022, and expired in October that year without a formal extension, but a fragile de facto ceasefire had largely held since then, despite sporadic clashes along several front lines. (Namibia Daily News /Xinhua)
