Government-aligned forces say they struck Houthi positions in Taiz, Lahj and Dhale
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemeni government-aligned forces said they carried out drone and air strikes on Houthi positions in three southwestern governorates on Sunday.
The Giants Brigades said its drone units struck Houthi gatherings and military vehicles on the Kahbub front in Lahj governorate. The front overlooks the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
The force released video footage it said showed burning military vehicles and destroyed positions. It gave no figure for casualties or materiel losses.
The Nation Shield Forces said their drones hit Houthi sites in Dhale governorate. They gave no further detail.
The Taiz Military Axis said warplanes struck a camp and vehicles at the Mawiya junction east of Taiz city.
Al Jazeera reported the operations the same day from its own reporting. It said government forces had conducted air and ground action across Taiz over the previous 24 hours. The Turkish broadcaster A News reported the same strikes separately.
Air raids hit five locations, according to that account. They included al-Waziiya district in western Taiz, and weapons stores and ammunition depots at Mafraq Mawiya and al-Dhukrah in the east.
Other strikes hit a Houthi gathering in Hayfan district to the south and military vehicles at Gurab in the northwest, the same account said.
Government units said they repelled infiltration attempts on the al-Ahtoub and Hadran fronts. They said they shelled Houthi gatherings on the al-Kadha and al-Aqroud fronts.
Fayad al-Numan, the deputy information minister, said the strikes caused heavy losses among Houthi forces. He gave no numbers.
The government military media centre said dozens of Houthi fighters, including field commanders, were killed or wounded. Al Jazeera said that claim could not be verified. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of it.
The Houthi-run health ministry gave a different account of the Mawiya strike. It said seven people were killed and 40 wounded, and that shops in a marketplace were hit.
The ministry said Saudi Arabia took part in the raid. Neither Saudi nor Yemeni authorities commented on that account. Yemen Herald could not verify the casualty figures or the allegation of Saudi involvement.
The two sides describe the same strikes in different terms. The government presents them as attacks on military targets. The Houthi-run ministry presents them as a raid that hit a market.
Al Jazeera said media reports placed the death toll from the current round of fighting in the hundreds. It said exact figures remained unconfirmed.
The Giants Brigades are a government-aligned force that operates on Yemen’s western coast and in the south.
On 21 September the force said it had destroyed five Houthi military vehicles near Bab al-Mandab. On 24 September military sources said it had sent reinforcements to the Subaiha front in Lahj.
Bab al-Mandab links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Shipping bound for the Suez Canal passes through it.
Yemeni air defences said they downed a Houthi drone over Jabal Habashi in Taiz on 26 September.
Taiz governor Nabil Shamsan said on 25 September that the province’s security was a red line.
Government forces carried out an earlier round of air strikes on Houthi targets on 7 September, Al Jazeera reported at the time.
Bloomberg reported on 25 September that the Houthis were building missiles and drones inside Yemen with Chinese-sourced parts.
Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights said on 24 September that two Houthi missiles had struck a crowded market in Lahj. Yemen Herald could not independently verify that account.
Fighting resumed in July 2026. More than 146,000 people have been displaced since then, Al Jazeera reported.
The Houthis have taken ground in that period. Reports say they seized the Red Sea port of Mocha.
The group has also launched drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia during the same period, according to Al Jazeera. The Gulf Cooperation Council condemned attacks on Riyadh and Khamis Mushait last week.
Brigadier-General Majed al-Nazili, a spokesman for the government forces, said Houthi weapons posed a threat to international flight paths.
Saudi Arabia has sought support from Pakistan and Turkey under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, Al Jazeera reported. Iran put forward a ceasefire proposal, which the broadcaster said Donald Trump rejected.
Members of the Presidential Leadership Council raised the escalation in meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this month. The council has governed from Aden since April 2022. Rashad al-Alimi chairs it.
Arab foreign ministers warned on 23 September that a Houthi advance threatened shipping at Bab al-Mandab.
G7 foreign ministers condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia on 23 September and urged Iran to stop arming the group.
Mocha lies on the Red Sea coast, north of the strait.
More than 22 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations humanitarian response plan for 2026. The plan puts the number facing acute food insecurity at 18.3 million.
More than 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, the plan says. It records 516,157 of them as severely malnourished.
The plan counts 5.2 million people as internally displaced. It seeks 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people this year.
The Houthis have held the capital, Sanaa, since September 2014.
Hayfan and al-Waziiya lie in southern and western Taiz governorate.
Taiz has been a front line since 2015. Dhale governorate lies between Taiz and Aden.
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