🪖 As Houthis tighten noose around Taiz, why does the city matter?

The Houthi forces are conducting a major offensive in the Taiz governorate, and have attacked the seat of the Saudi-backed government in Aden with drone and missile strikes.

Ansar Allah forces are have also virtually encircled Taiz.

➡️ with nearly 600,000 residents, Taiz is the last major urban stronghold of anti-Houthi forces in Yemen’s southern highlands

➡️ its capture would bring Ansar Allah closer to Aden – the seat of the Saudi-backed government - and weaken the coalition’s ability to launch counterattacks

➡️ Houthi advances around al-Turbah and al-Misrakh have cut sections of the roughly 200-km route to Aden

➡️ coalition airstrikes and ground operations have so far failed to reverse the gains

➡️ after Ansar Allah consolidated control over Yemen’s Red Sea coastline in September, the coalition launched an offensive to reclaim territory - losing Taiz would make it harder to threaten Houthi positions near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait

The fall of Taiz - predominantly Sunni Muslim while the Houthis adhere to the Zaydi school of Shi'ite Islam - would also be symbolic.

The city has long stood as a center of resistance to Houthis since 2015, when the Saudis formed a coalition with the UAE and waged a proxy war in Yemen, providing material support to the anti-Houthi forces to restore the regime of Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

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