Houthi forces cut the Taiz-Aden road after seizing al-Safiya, security sources say

Spread the Word

TAIZ, Yemen — Houthi forces cut the main road linking Taiz to Aden on Sunday after seizing the al-Safiya area south of the city, security and military sources said.

The fighters also took a police station in al-Safiya, a police source in the area said. Traffic along the route stopped.

The road was the last open link between Taiz, encircled on its other sides since 2015, and Aden, the seat of the internationally recognised government. News agencies described the city as besieged after Sunday’s closure.

Three Yemeni military sources described the loss of the area to news agencies on Sunday. A police source gave the same account separately.

Sunday’s advance followed several days of heavy fighting in the same area, news agencies reported.

The pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Houthi units took al-Safiya and al-Barkani the same day. It said the advance severed the road connecting al-Turbah, the administrative centre of al-Shamayatayn district, with Taiz city to the north.

Al-Shamayatayn lies between Taiz city and the coastal lowlands.

Hours after the road was cut, Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, announced a counter-offensive.

“I announce today the start of military operations to retake the remaining territories of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory,” al-Alimi said.

He gave no timetable and did not name the fronts where the operations would begin.

Al-Alimi has headed the council since it was formed in April 2022, when President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi transferred his powers to the eight-member body. The council is based in Aden.

Fighting in the preceding day killed more than 70 people, according to figures the two sides gave separately. Government sources put their own losses at 34 soldiers. Houthi sources reported 39 dead. Neither count has been independently confirmed.

Reports of the advance carried on Sunday did not include a statement from the Houthi movement confirming the seizure of al-Safiya.

Asharq Al-Awsat said Yemen’s defence minister, Lt. Gen. Taher al-Aqili, and the chief of the general staff, Lt. Gen. Sagheer bin Aziz, were directing operations on the southern fronts. It named Maj. Gen. Yousef al-Sharaji, Maj. Gen. Khaled Fadel and Maj. Gen. Abdulaziz al-Majidi among the commanders involved.

The armed forces spokesman, Col. Majid al-Nazili, has reported strikes on Houthi positions over the past week. Asharq Al-Awsat put the weekly count at 257 strikes, which it said left about 700 fighters out of action, and a further 97 strikes affecting 260 more. A separate account of Sunday’s operations gave 260 fighters and 44 military vehicles. The totals come from the Yemeni military, they differ between the outlets that carried them, and none has been independently verified.

Unnamed Yemeni sources quoted by the Yemen Online news site said Houthi fighters had entered al-Turbah itself, and that a local axis commander had withdrawn to Aden. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of either claim. The news agencies that reported the road closure did not mention them.

Taiz is Yemen’s third city. Front lines have run close to residential districts there for a decade, and supply convoys, fuel tankers and medical cases have used the Aden road throughout.

Houthi forces advanced on Taiz in 2015 and have held positions on the city’s approaches since. The government has used Aden as its temporary seat over the same period.

Alternative routes run over mountain tracks. They add hours to journeys and are impassable to larger vehicles in places.

The Houthis have gained ground across western Yemen through 2026. News agency reporting describes an offensive during which the group took Yemen’s Red Sea coastline. The movement has held the capital, Sanaa, since 2014.

The United Nations has warned repeatedly about the cost to civilians.

Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Sept. 24 that at least 125 civilians had been killed or wounded since the start of August.

His office said it had documented 32 civilian deaths in that period, among them 15 children and three women.

“Civilians are now bearing the brunt of this latest upsurge in fighting,” Türk said.

He said about 125,000 people had been displaced by the renewed violence, and called on all parties to protect civilians and allow humanitarian access.

The displacement figure covered the period from the start of August to late September.

The statement named Ansar Allah, the Houthi movement’s formal name, the Yemeni government and affiliated forces as parties to the conflict. It said the office had documented three attacks on sites housing displaced people in Marib governorate, on Aug. 7 and between Sept. 7 and 9.

Aid agencies entered the current fighting with the relief system already stretched. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its 2026 humanitarian plan that more than 22 million Yemenis need assistance.

The plan put the number of acutely food insecure at 18.3 million. It said more than 2.2 million children under five were acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely.

It counted 5.2 million people displaced before this year’s fighting began. The appeal sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people.

Al-Safiya sits on the plain south of Taiz, where the highway runs toward the coast road and on to Aden.