Yemeni sources say government forces repelled a Houthi attack on Taiz’s southern entrance
Yemen Herald News 
TAIZ, Yemen — Government forces repelled a Houthi attack on the southern entrance to Taiz city, Yemeni sources said on Friday.
The sources said the attack targeted the Wadi al-Dhabab road and that Houthi fighters pulled back.
They reported exchanges of heavy weapons fire on the Jabal Sabr and Najd Qasim fronts, south and west of the city.
The sources were not named. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of the account, and the Houthi leadership has not commented publicly on it.
The two sides routinely give conflicting accounts of who holds ground in Taiz, and each disputes the other’s casualty claims.
The same sources said security forces put down a disturbance at Taiz central prison, which sits on the Wadi al-Dhabab road.
They said inmates opened internal gates as the fighting drew closer.
Yemeni military sources said separately that fighting continued for a second day near the al-Ardi camp in the Bab al-Mandab area.
They said the Southern Giants Brigades attacked from two axes, and that dozens of fighters were killed or wounded on both sides.
Those casualty figures rest on one side’s account. No independent tally has been published.
Fighting has intensified across Taiz governorate, according to Security Council Report, which tracks the UN Security Council’s agenda.
Houthi advances there threaten Taiz city and could cut off government forces further south, the group said.
Taiz is Yemen’s most densely populated governorate, and its third largest city carries the same name.
Hans Grundberg, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, told the Security Council on Friday that the humanitarian situation in Taiz was deteriorating rapidly.
He said the country had slid back into full-scale war.
Grundberg said at least 46 civilians had been killed and more than 130 injured across Yemen since August, citing UN figures. He said children accounted for a disproportionate share.
The Yemeni government said on 5 October that it had retaken Mocha and positions near the Bab al-Mandab Strait with coalition air support.
The Saudi-led coalition said late on Friday that it had destroyed 136 Houthi military targets in a large-scale operation. It gave no casualty figures.
The coalition said on 6 October that it had intercepted Houthi missiles aimed at Khamis Mushait and at an area near Riyadh.
The Houthis launched an offensive in September to widen their control across south-western Yemen and the Red Sea coast, according to Security Council Report.
The International Organization for Migration has recorded more than 200,000 people displaced since the current fighting began.
UNICEF estimates about 71,000 children are among them, and says hundreds of schools have closed.
The agency reported at least 15 children killed and 14 injured since 3 September.
The World Health Organization said cholera cases have tripled in recent weeks.
Taiz has been a front line since 2015. Houthi forces have besieged parts of the city for much of the war.
The war began when Houthi forces seized Sanaa in September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition intervened on the government’s side in March 2015.
A UN-brokered truce took effect in April 2022 and formally lapsed six months later. Front lines were largely static in the years that followed.
The United Nations humanitarian response plan for Yemen for 2026 estimates that more than 22 million people need some form of assistance.
The plan says 18.3 million people are acutely food insecure and counts 5.2 million internally displaced people.
It projects that about 2.2 million children under five will face acute malnutrition this year, including more than 500,000 with the severe form.
The plan seeks $2.16 billion to reach 12 million people.
Yemen imports close to 90 percent of its food.
Grundberg briefed the Council alongside Mohamed Yahya, the assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, and a civil society representative working on child protection.
“Gains on the battlefield cannot substitute for the negotiations,” Grundberg said.
He said military pressure could strengthen a party’s position at the table but could not take the place of talks.
He called on the Houthis to halt attacks on Saudi Arabia, on civilian infrastructure and on the kingdom’s energy sector.
Grundberg said 72 UN personnel remain detained by the Houthi authorities.
At least eight detainees, among them two UN employees, have been prosecuted by Houthi courts on espionage-related charges since 18 August and face a possible death sentence, according to Security Council Report.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said attacks on King Khalid International Airport, north of Riyadh, killed three Saudi citizens. The authority announced the toll on Friday.
Three people were wounded on 6 October in attacks on King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Airport and Najran Airport, according to Security Council Report.
Abdullah Ali Fadhel al-Saadi, Yemen’s representative to the United Nations, told the session that the Houthi threat was no longer an internal Yemeni affair.
He called for measures to cut the flow of funding, weapons and technology reaching the group.
Abdulaziz al-Wasil, Saudi Arabia’s representative, said the Council had to address what he called a dangerous escalation in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye met on 5 October under the Mecca Defense Alliance and condemned the attacks on Saudi territory.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government is based in Aden. The Houthi authorities control Sanaa and much of the north and west.
Neither side has published a figure for civilians displaced from Taiz city this week.
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