More than 184,000 people have fled their homes in Taiz, the United Nations says, as Yemen’s civil war entered its most dangerous phase in years this week. In recent weeks, the southwestern front has become the Middle East war’s most active. The displaced are only one part of a widening crisis, which now reaches the Saudi capital.
On Monday, Iran-backed Houthis said they had attacked Riyadh’s international airport, an oil refinery and other sites in Saudi Arabia. Loud blasts shook the capital that evening. A Houthi spokesman said the group struck King Khalid International Airport, a refinery owned by state oil giant Aramco and other targets in the kingdom’s south.
The Battlefield and Its Civilians
Yemeni government forces said they had pushed Houthi forces out of areas near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, including the port city of Mocha, Dhubab airport and Al-Omari military camp. The National reported that government forces recaptured the strategic port city of Mokha, with 100 jets taking part in Sunday’s offensive. Military sources quoted by AFP did not confirm an official announcement that Mocha had been recaptured. They said pro-government forces cut the port’s only supply route.
The Yemeni military said it carried out more than 1,000 strikes and began an offensive against Sanaa. The Saudi-led coalition said 100 warplanes flew sorties at dawn. On X, coalition spokesman Turki Al-Malki said its naval forces struck Houthi “military targets” in Hodeida. He said they “destroyed weapons depots, facilities storing booby-trapped boats and naval mines” and had “thwarted a planned attack” targeting waterways in the southern Red Sea.
The military also said it had driven the Houthis out of several areas in Taiz, where deadly fighting has intensified in recent days. The reporting offers no casualty figures for Sanaa, Hodeida or Taiz. It does provide the scale of the air campaign and the displacement figure. Together, those numbers show how heavily the burden falls on people with no say in the fighting.
A Widening War
The Houthis once controlled much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, and the western city of Hodeida. Last month, they seized broad stretches of Red Sea coastline and the key Bab al-Mandab Strait, in Yemen’s deadliest fighting in years. They have also attacked neighbouring Saudi Arabia since Yemen’s civil war flared up again, and declared a maritime blockade on its ships.
Regional powers are getting drawn in. After weeks of Houthi attacks, Pakistan and Turkey pledged to send troops to Saudi Arabia under a new mutual defence pact. Representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey met in Riyadh on Monday under a joint defence agreement signed in August, which commits them to assist one another if attacked. They agreed “to take the necessary measures to provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment in the Kingdom.” The statement didn’t specify the troops’ role.
The Saudi-led coalition backs the internationally recognised government, and Riyadh and its Yemeni allies have begun an effort to retake all territory held by the group. A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in fighting” and condemned “the continued Houthi cross-border attacks” on Saudi Arabia. Houthi attacks have repeatedly hit Saudi oil infrastructure and its tankers in the Red Sea.
The Economic Shock
The fighting is also shaking the global economy. A source in the Saudi energy sector told AFP that a Sunday attack again halted pumping through the East-West pipeline to the Red Sea. Since Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the wider Middle East war, that pipeline has served as a key route for the kingdom’s exports. Crude prices were already surging before the Houthis started targeting the world’s largest oil exporter.
Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser warned on Monday that global oil stockpiles were “scarily thin” because of the war. “The system is already straining,” Nasser told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London. The National’s headline also said Saudi Arabia had the right to defend itself from the Houthis, a position attributed to U.S. Senator Marco Rubio.
Why This Matters: Yemen’s war was already one of the region’s deepest humanitarian wounds. This week’s events have made it broader and more dangerous. Fighting that has displaced more than 184,000 people in Taiz alone now coincides with strikes on Riyadh, a 100-jet offensive and a new defence pact bringing Pakistani and Turkish troops toward Saudi Arabia. Each escalation raises the cost for civilians on the front lines and leaves less room for negotiation. The UN’s alarm is diplomatic language; the displacement figure shows the reality it describes. With the Strait of Hormuz blockaded and the East-West pipeline interrupted, the consequences reach beyond Yemen. A political settlement was always the only durable way out of this war, and this past week’s escalation pushes that outcome further away.