Yemeni forces open al-Waziyah push west of Taiz as reports describe troops encircled at al-Mawasit
Yemen Herald News 
TAIZ, Yemen — Yemeni government forces opened an operation on Tuesday to retake al-Waziyah district west of Taiz, according to local reports.
The push is meant to precede an advance on al-Mukha and Dhubab, both held by the Houthi group, the same reports said.
The operation runs in the border area between Lahj and Taiz governorates. Fighting continued along Yemen’s western coast.
Separately, unnamed Yemeni sources cited in that reporting said Houthi fighters had encircled the commander of the 35th Armoured Brigade and several hundred government troops in a village in al-Mawasit district, south of Taiz, after cutting the unit’s supply lines.
The encircled troops were repelling repeated attempts to storm the position, those sources said. Clashes between the two sides were continuing.
Yemen Herald could not independently verify either account in full.
The reported encirclement at al-Mawasit has not been corroborated. It rests on a single Yemeni news report that attributes it to sources it does not name, and the Houthi side has not commented on it.
Al Jazeera reported on Oct. 6 that al-Waziyah was one of the fronts in a government offensive announced on Oct. 4 under the name Operation Dawn of Yemen.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, said on Oct. 4 that the armed forces had begun operations to recover territory held by the Houthis.
Al-Alimi said the operation had begun to restore state institutions and to take the capital, Sanaa.
Government forces announced on Monday that they had taken the Bab al-Mandab area and Dhubab airport in southwestern Yemen, according to the Yemeni News Agency.
Col. Majed al-Nuzaili, a government military spokesman, said forces had carried out a flanking manoeuvre to take control of the Bab al-Mandab strait, The National reported on Oct. 5.
He said the Giants Brigades and the Nation’s Shield forces secured the waterway, and that government units had also taken the Dhubab area and the port city of Mokha.
Al-Nuzaili described a strategic offensive on Houthi-held Sanaa, according to the same report.
The Saudi-led coalition said 100 fighter jets were providing air support around the clock.
Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said 324 targets the coalition described as high value had been destroyed, The National reported.
The government said it had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Houthi positions, according to Türkiye Today.
A Houthi military spokesman said on Tuesday that the group had kept its battlefield gains and described the government’s accounts of its advance as fabricated.
The Houthi-run Al Masirah television said attacks had taken place.
The National said the government claims could not immediately be independently verified and had not been confirmed by the Houthis.
The Houthi health ministry said civilians had been killed in airstrikes.
A Houthi maritime authority warned airlines against flying in Saudi airspace.
The World Health Organization has recorded more than 5,000 casualties in Yemen since Aug. 6, including 959 deaths.
Nearly 200,000 people have been displaced by the fighting and 3,600 have crossed into Djibouti, according to figures cited by The National.
Cholera cases tripled over three weeks, the same report said.
The Houthis took the Bab al-Mandab area in September. UN figures cited by Türkiye Today put displacement from that offensive at more than 145,000 people.
The group completed its takeover of the Bab al-Mandab region on Sept. 11, recapturing Perim Island, and took the Hanish Islands.
Houthi forces cut the road linking Taiz to Aden on Oct. 4.
Houthi fighters took the al-Safiya area, cut the main road there and seized the local police station, AFP reported on Oct. 4, citing a police source.
AFP said four security sources described the advance, one from the police and three from the Yemeni military.
The road is the main supply route between Taiz and Aden, the seat of the internationally recognised government.
Taiz city remains under government control. AFP said it has long been besieged by Houthi fighters from the north, east and west.
Fighting in that area was continuing, according to the same report.
AFP said the war in Yemen reignited in July against a widening conflict in the region.
The World Health Organization’s count runs from Aug. 6, when fighting resumed.
Al Jazeera reported on Sept. 16 that 65,845 people had been displaced within Taiz governorate between Aug. 10 and Sept. 15, citing Ali al-Shumairi, director-general of the executive unit managing camps for displaced people in Taiz.
About 95 percent came from five districts, among them al-Waziyah, the district at the centre of Tuesday’s reported operation.
The UN refugee agency put displacement from the renewed fighting at at least 100,000 people, according to the same report.
More than 1,500 families reached Mushrifa camp in Wadi Bikhawlan over six days, said camp supervisor Osama al-Wafi, who described most of them as living in the open for lack of shelter.
Al-Munij camp, about 40 kilometres southwest of Taiz city, covers two square kilometres.
UN agencies and the internationally recognised government had identified Taiz city as the Houthis’ next objective, Al Jazeera said in that report.
Al-Waziyah lies on the road between the Taiz highlands and the Red Sea coastal plain.
Al-Mawasit sits south of Taiz city, on the southern approaches to the governorate’s main urban area.
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