Fighting continues to intensify in Yemen as Houthi forces battle Saudi-backed government troops for control of strategic mountains near the Red Sea, while the leader of the Iran-aligned movement accused the United States of considering direct military intervention in the conflict.
The Monday clashes come amid rising regional tensions linked to the US and Israeli war on Iran. They also follow a New York Times report that US President Donald Trump had ordered air strikes against the Houthis on Sunday before calling them off at the last minute.
Officials said the renewed violence has killed at least 674 people and displaced more than 158,000.
According to Al Jazeera witnesses, the Houthis — who seized Yemen’s Red Sea coast this month, including the port of Mocha — are now trying to take the Kahboub Mountains in Taiz and Lahj provinces. Control of the strategic high ground, which overlooks the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and Mayyun Island in the Red Sea, would allow the Houthis to cut off the coast from areas still held by the government in the south.
“Since the Houthis entered Mocha and seized control of the port and later took Mayyun Island, they have been trying to advance into the mountains or make gains that would allow them to secure their rear,” said Al Jazeera’s Maha Ali, reporting from Taiz.
“Kahboub is now the main battlefield. It may remain so in the coming days given the mountain’s strategic importance and its oversight of Mayyun Island,” she said.
Report of cancelled US strikes
The fighting has unfolded as media reports say Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has repeatedly pressed the US to join the battle. On Saturday, the Houthis claimed an attack on the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the first such strike since the latest escalation.
Washington has so far rejected those appeals, according to the reports.
The New York Times said on Monday that the Trump administration had prepared to launch air attacks on Sunday against the Houthis after fresh requests from Riyadh. However, it reported that Trump halted the operation at the last minute, even as personnel were loading bombs onto aircraft.
Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi also said in a speech that the US was considering a joint escalation with Saudi Arabia against his forces.
“Regional circumstances have kept the US and Israel somewhat preoccupied, creating a problem for the Saudi regime, which seeks their participation in its aggression and blockade against the Yemeni people,” the leader of the Iran-aligned group said. He also warned Washington against further escalation, saying the conflict would continue as long as the US objective remained “dominance over the Yemeni people”.
Analysts said Trump’s reported reversal highlighted his administration’s reluctance to take on another military commitment in a region where US forces are already stretched thin.
“President Trump was put in a very difficult position of whether to come to the aid of a world leader who he is trying to garner good relations with, but also whether to add another very difficult dimension militarily in a region where the US is already pretty bogged down,” said Jason Campbell, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.
He said the US military has already “expended a good amount of of higher end munitions” and that many “interceptors need to be replenished”.
Casualties and displacement rise
Yemeni government forces, meanwhile, said they struck Houthi fighters and supply lines near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and in al-Bayda governorate, and shot down a Houthi drone in southwestern Taiz.
Major-General Abdulaziz al-Majidi, chief of staff of the Taiz military force, also told the state-run Saba news agency that soldiers and allied tribal fighters had “liberated a number of areas” on the outskirts of Taiz after fighting Houthi ground forces. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the battlefield claims.
The Houthis said Saudi Arabia carried out at least 157 air attacks in the provinces of al-Jawf, Taiz, Saada and Marib on Monday, killing at least one civilian. Another attack in Mocha late on Monday killed six civilians, including two children and a woman, the Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reported.
There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia.
As the fighting intensified, the World Health Organization said 674 people had been killed and almost 3,000 injured since August 6, including 164 deaths and 516 injuries between September 13 and 18 alone.
More than 158,000 people have been displaced this month, according to Yemen’s Executive Unit for the Management of Displaced Persons Camps. It said about 23,550 families had fled their homes across eight governorates, including Aden, Hodeidah and Taiz.
The conflict is also worsening hunger across Yemen, where more than 18 million people — roughly half the country’s population — already face acute food insecurity.
Carl Skau, the acting executive director of the World Food Programme, said “tens of thousands” of people are arriving in “overstretched” camps “with nothing”. He noted that Yemen imports 90 percent of its food, meaning that when ports or airports are not functioning, “that’s having an impact on food security”.
A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that continued fighting risked causing further damage to Yemen and its people, and said the UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, remained in contact with all parties to the conflict.
