The key facts

  • Three civilians, including two women, were killed and five wounded in Houthi shelling in Taiz province.
  • The Yemeni army said it repelled an eight-hour Houthi attack on the al-Shaqab front, with 16 fighters killed, according to its data.
  • The Houthis did not comment on the army's statements; the escalation began in July — the most significant since the 2022 truce.

Civilian Casualties

Three civilians were killed and five others wounded in shelling by Yemen's Houthis in the southwestern province of Taiz, the government Taiz Siege Mitigation Office said on Friday evening. According to the office, three people were killed in the shelling of the Sabr al-Mawadim district in the south of the province. The dead were named as Safwan Saeed Obaid, 28, Asia Abdul Samad Saeed Ahmed, 55, and Safia Hazza Saif al-Baadani. The office also reported separate shelling of the al-Shaqab district in southern Taiz and the Aqqaq district in the west, which wounded five people, including two women.

Statements by the Yemeni Army

On Friday, the Yemeni army said it repelled a large-scale Houthi attack on the al-Shaqab front south of Taiz after clashes lasting about eight hours. According to the Taiz Military Axis, 16 Houthi fighters were killed and others wounded. The army also reported airstrikes on Houthi positions at the al-Hangar checkpoint and the al-Maqbaba and al-Kamil heights in the al-Dhabab area west of Taiz, as well as on Houthi military reinforcements, weapons and vehicles east of the al-Shaqab front. The Houthis did not comment on these army statements.

Conflict Context

The escalation comes amid a military escalation that began in July and, according to the agency, is the most significant since the period of relative calm following the truce brokered by the UN, which took effect in April 2022. Yemen has been engulfed in conflict since September 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and a number of provinces, prompting the Saudi Arabia-led coalition to intervene in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government.