Yemeni forces planning ground offensive against the Houthis
By Bridget Toomey | April 18, 2025 |
The USS Harry S Truman conducting ongoing operations targeting the Houthis. (CENTCOM)
Anti-Houthi “Yemeni militias are planning a ground offensive against the Houthis,” according to Yemeni and US officials cited by the Wall Street Journal. The plans follow over a month of US airstrikes that have weakened the Iran-backed terror group ruling northern Yemen. US Central Command (CENTCOM) launched a large-scale operation against the Houthis on March 15 after the group targeted international shipping and US Navy vessels in the Red Sea for over 15 months in solidarity with Hamas’s war against Israel.
Anti-Houthi military factions in Yemen are eyeing the coast along the Red Sea, a Houthi economic lifeline and center of the group’s aggression against maritime activity, according to the WSJ report. US officials said the Emiratis raised the plan, but UAE officials have since denied involvement in discussions over a ground offensive. American officials said the United States is “open to supporting a ground operation by local forces” but “a decision on whether to back the effort hasn’t been made yet.”
Another proposal would entail a multi-front attack that includes Yemen’s west coast and efforts to retake the Houthi-controlled capital of Sanaa, according to Bloomberg. Separately, the Emirati state-owned newspaper The National reported that 80,000 soldiers are being mobilized to retake key areas on the west coast. However, Yemen experts report that frontline evidence does not indicate a mobilization has begun. Proposed offensive plans differ in many details, but all place the western coast at the center of any action.
Yemen’s west coast
https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2025/04/yemeni-forces-planning-ground-offensive-against-the-houthis.php
