Houthi commander captured in southwestern Yemen, say government-aligned forces

Mohammed Sameai and Serdar Dincel

Yemen’s government-aligned forces announced on Tuesday that they had captured a Houthi commander, along with his several men with him, in Yemen’s southwestern Taiz province.

The joint government forces “captured Houthi commander Abu Ali al-Adhari, one of the rapid intervention force commanders on the Al-Barh front,” the National Resistance Forces said in a statement.

Al-Adhari “was captured along with several of his men following fierce clashes,” the statement added.

In a separate statement, the forces also announced that they had carried out airstrikes that “struck Houthi militia reinforcements in the Al-Kadha and Al-Barh sectors in western Taiz.”

The Houthis did not immediately comment on the statements.

Yemen had been under a relative lull since 2022 after nearly 12 years of war between government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and the Iranian-backed Houthis, who seized control of the capital Sana and large parts of the country in 2014.

Since late 2023, after the Gaza war began, the Houthis have become increasingly involved in regional hostilities, launching attacks on Israel and commercial shipping in the Red Sea, while recent renewed fighting has raised fears of a return to full-scale conflict in Yemen.