The Yemen war

Why is there a war in Yemen?

The Houthis are a Zaydi Shia movement from northern Yemen. Their leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, took over after government forces killed his brother Hussein in 2004. The Houthis fought six wars with President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government between 2004 and 2010. After mass protests in 2011, Saleh handed power to his vice president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, in 2012. In September 2014 the Houthis, by then allied with Saleh, took Sanaa. In January 2015 they put Hadi under house arrest. He escaped to Aden and then to Saudi Arabia. The Houthis call their takeover a revolution against a corrupt government. Saudi Arabia and Yemen's government call it a coup backed by Iran.

In March 2015 a Saudi-led coalition began bombing the Houthis. Its stated goal was to restore Hadi's government. The coalition also blockaded Houthi-held ports, and the Houthis fired missiles into Saudi Arabia. A UN-brokered truce began in April 2022. It formally expired that October, but large-scale fighting mostly stopped for four years.

On July 13, 2026, an airstrike hit the runway of Sanaa airport. Yemen's government said it carried out the strike to stop an Iranian airliner from landing. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia and declared the truce over. On July 20 they declared a blockade of Saudi shipping. In September they took Mokha and Perim island. On October 4 the government launched Operation Dawn of Yemen to retake Sanaa, backed by Saudi air power. UN envoy Hans Grundberg said on October 9 that Yemen had returned to "full-scale war."

Who controls what in Yemen?

The Houthis hold Sanaa and the northwest, where most Yemenis live. Since September 2026 they have also held most of Yemen's Red Sea coast, from Hodeidah south to Mokha, and Perim island in the Bab el-Mandeb strait. Yemen's government said on October 5 that it had retaken Mokha and the coast around Dhubab, on the strait. The Houthis denied it. Al Jazeera reported on October 17 that Mokha remained in Houthi hands, and fighting around Dhubab went on.

The government holds Aden, Marib and the east, including Hadramout. In January 2026 government forces took Aden from the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist group backed by the United Arab Emirates. The STC wants an independent south. Its leader, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, fled to the UAE, and the group announced its dissolution, though some members rejected it. The UAE withdrew its forces from Yemen after Chairman al-Alimi canceled Yemen's defense pact with it on December 30, 2025.

The October offensive opened several fronts at once. The Saudi-led coalition said it had destroyed 324 targets by October 5. Fighting is heaviest in Taiz province, where the Houthis have besieged Taiz city since early October, and in Marib and al-Jawf, east of Sanaa. Government forces say they have killed more than 1,000 Houthi fighters. The Houthis called the government's claims of gains baseless. Neither side's claims can be independently verified.

How many people have died in the Yemen war?

No one has a full count. A UN Development Programme study estimated that the war would cause 377,000 deaths by the end of 2021. About 60% of them would come from hunger, disease and the lack of health care. No agreed total exists for the years since.

The WHO counted 1,677 people killed and 7,395 wounded in Yemen in the fighting from August to October 25, 2026. Marib, Taiz and Lahj recorded the most deaths in the last week of that count. By October 22 the UN human rights office had verified 251 civilian casualties, including 57 killed. Half of the civilians killed were children.

Each side blames the other for civilian deaths. On October 28 the Houthi-run health ministry said a Saudi-led airstrike on a market in al-Hazm, in al-Jawf province, killed 14 people, including three children. Yemen's government says Houthi shelling in Taiz province has killed civilians, including a five-year-old girl in October. In Saudi Arabia, Houthi strikes on airports killed at least 22 people in October.

Why are the Houthis attacking Saudi Arabia?

The Houthis say they are retaliating for Saudi airstrikes, including strikes on the airports of Sanaa and Hodeidah. They declared a blockade of Saudi shipping on July 20, 2026, a week after the strike on Sanaa airport. They then attacked Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, hit Aramco facilities and, in October, struck Saudi airports.

Houthi strikes on Saudi airports killed at least 22 people in October, by the counts of Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority. On October 6 strikes on the airports of Abha and Riyadh killed three people. On October 8 a strike on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport killed three Saudis, including a Saudia pilot. On October 10 a strike on the same airport killed 12 people and wounded 309. An Indian man died of his wounds the next day. The dead came from nine countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and the United States. The Saudi-led coalition called the attack "a full-fledged war crime." Strikes on Riyadh on October 11 and on Dammam's King Fahd International Airport on October 21 killed three more people.

Saudi Arabia's allies have offered help. On October 5 Turkey and Pakistan agreed to send forces to defend Saudi Arabia under the Mecca pact, a mutual defense agreement the three countries signed on August 7, 2026. On October 26 Egypt's parliament authorized President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to send military support if Saudi Arabia asks. Sisi said Egyptian forces would only defend Saudi territory and borders.

Why do the Houthis attack ships in the Red Sea?

The Houthis began attacking ships in November 2023. They said they were targeting ships linked to Israel to support Gaza. After US and British airstrikes began in January 2024, they also targeted US and British ships. By July 2025 they had attacked more than 100 merchant ships and sunk four. The attacks cut daily ship crossings at Bab el-Mandeb from about 75 in 2023 to about 26 by September 2026. Egypt's Suez Canal revenue fell 61%, from $10.25 billion in 2023 to $3.99 billion in 2024.

In May 2025 the Houthis and the United States agreed, through Oman, to stop attacking each other. The Houthis paused their attacks on shipping after the Gaza ceasefire of October 2025. When the US and Israel attacked Iran in February 2026, the Houthis said they would resume attacks on US and Israeli ships. In July 2026 they turned on Saudi shipping. On July 30 Saudi Arabia announced a 14-country maritime coalition to protect the Red Sea. On August 11 a Houthi attack on the Tihamah, a cargo ship near Bab el-Mandeb, killed four crew and two rescuers, Yemen's government said. Houthi media said the group had hit a Saudi ship carrying military equipment. On August 24 a Houthi missile set fire to the Saudi supertanker Amzan west of Yanbu.