More than 140 fighters were killed in less than a day of intense clashes between forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the country’s southwest, military sources from both sides said Sunday, as Yemen experiences some of its heaviest fighting in years.
Two military officials with the Saudi-backed government forces said 84 soldiers were killed between midday Saturday and early Sunday, most of them in rocket attacks. Four Houthi sources said 57 rebel fighters were killed during the same period, bringing the reported combatant death toll to at least 141.
Houthi strikes on Saudi-backed government positions in Yemen’s Marib province, August 2026
The figures could not be independently verified.
The deaths came amid a sharp escalation across several fronts in southwestern Yemen, particularly in Taiz and Hodeida provinces and along the Red Sea coast. Government forces said Sunday they had recaptured the strategically located Hais district south of Hodeida, which sits near routes linking Hodeida, Taiz and Ibb provinces.
Government forces have also launched a counteroffensive in the neighboring al-Jarahi district and said they captured dozens of Houthi fighters. Fighting and strikes were also reported around Taiz and Lahj over the weekend.
The renewed combat represents a significant deterioration in a conflict that had remained comparatively subdued since a UN-brokered truce took effect in 2022. Although the formal ceasefire expired later that year, the agreement ushered in several years without a return to full-scale nationwide warfare. That relative calm has broken down in recent weeks as fighting has spread across several provinces.
Sanaa, Yemen
(Photo: Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP)
Government forces carried out at least 15 airstrikes Friday against Houthi positions, vehicles and gatherings in Taiz and Hodeida, according to Yemen's military. The strikes followed a major Houthi offensive toward the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the strategic waterway connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and one of the world's most important shipping routes.
The fighting has also displaced civilians. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said nearly 1,800 families had been displaced in two days amid the escalation in Taiz. Houthi shelling of a civilian gathering on the road between Taiz and Aden killed four civilians and wounded nine others, according to Yemen's state-run Saba news agency.
Yemen's civil war began after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and drove the internationally recognized government from the city. A Saudi-led coalition intervened against the Houthis the following year. The rebels continue to control Sanaa and much of northern and western Yemen, while the internationally recognized government and allied factions control much of the south and east. Iran backs the Houthis, while Saudi Arabia supports the internationally recognized government.