Yemen’s government forces attack Houthis amid renewed shelling of Marib

Yemeni government forces have launched attacks on Houthi positions across multiple front lines, hours after the group renewed its shelling of Marib city, raising fears that years of relative calm could give way to wider conflict.

A military spokesman said the attacks on Saturday targeted the Houthis’ “capabilities and forces” along “multiple axes and along the line of contact”, describing the operation as necessary to “protect unarmed civilians”.

The military operation came after Houthi missile and drone attacks on the provinces of Hadramout and Marib killed at least 30 government soldiers and wounded 15 others on Thursday.

Deputy Information Minister Mohammed Gezan said Saturday the Houthis had “resumed shelling civilian neighbourhoods in Marib city with missiles and drones.”

The renewed shelling of Marib, a city hosting more than 2 million of Yemen’s nearly 5 million displaced people, followed an attack on Friday that killed two civilians and wounded 14 more, according to Yemen’s Health Ministry.

The Houthis said they were targeting a military camp on the city’s outskirts, while the Yemeni army said it repelled a separate attack Friday evening without casualties.

Fears of return to full-scale conflict

Al Jazeera’s Yousef Mawry, reporting from Sanaa, said it marked the first time in months the government forces had announced a counteroffensive, framing it as retaliation for a Houthi shift towards preemptive strikes on army positions in Marib and Hadramout.

The Houthis, Mawry said, claim they are acting on suspicions that government forces are coordinating with Saudi Arabia on a broader offensive against Houthi-held territory.

Elisabeth Kendall, a Middle East specialist and president of Girton College at Cambridge, said the escalation carries a “looming possibility” of tipping Yemen back into full-scale conflict.

“The civil war in Yemen never really technically ended,” she told Al Jazeera, noting that the 2022 truce had expired.

Kendall pointed to recent troop movements and clashes as signs that “all the warning signs are there”, though she said government forces are now more unified than in previous years – a shift that could work in the government’s favour if Saudi Arabia intervenes decisively.

The United Nations has called for de-escalation, condemning both the Houthi missile attacks and the group’s continued strikes on oil tankers in the Red Sea.