Yemen Launches Major Anti-Houthi Offensive as G7 Taps Oil Reserves Amid Hormuz Crisis
Yemen’s Saudi-backed government announced Sunday the start of a major military operation to retake territory from the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, as warplanes struck the rebel-held capital Sanaa and the northern stronghold of Saada, CNN reported. The Houthis answered by claiming ballistic missile and drone strikes on Saudi Aramco oil facilities near Riyadh.
Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s presidential council, said in a televised address Sunday that the operation aimed to reclaim remaining Houthi-held territory and restore state authority nationwide, according to CNN. He cited the Houthis’ continued mobilization and attacks on civilians, neighboring countries and international shipping lanes. The announcement followed a lightning Houthi offensive last month that seized Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab strait, shattering a truce that had largely held since 2022, Reuters reported.
The two sides traded blows through the weekend. Houthi-run Al Masirah television reported more than 50 Saudi-led airstrikes on Sanaa and other sites, including damage near a hospital, while the Houthis said they hit Aramco facilities in Riyadh and the Khurais oil field, sparking large fires. An AFP journalist saw flames and smoke rising from an Aramco facility south of Riyadh on Saturday. Saudi authorities did not confirm either set of strikes.
The escalation in Yemen unfolded against a wider energy crisis. At an emergency video conference Friday chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron, leaders of the Group of Seven agreed to release 100 million barrels of oil and fuel from emergency reserves over four months, coordinated by the International Energy Agency, NPR reported. Diesel comes first, with a substantial release promised within 20 days.
In a statement Friday, the G7 explicitly condemned Iran’s attacks on regional neighbors and its disruption of international trade and energy security, demanding the immediate restoration of freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. A sixth tanker was struck by an unknown projectile near the strait on Friday, Britain’s maritime security agency reported, with no casualties. Brent crude traded near $100.80 a barrel Friday while U.S. diesel prices hovered around $6.50 a gallon, nearly $3 higher than a year ago.
The reserves cushion is thinning. The IEA coordinated its largest-ever emergency release of 400 million barrels in March, and about two-thirds of those commitments have already been used, the agency’s chief Fatih Birol said this week. The G7 has asked the IEA to report within 20 days on the impact of the new release and on replenishing stocks.
Tens of thousands of Yemenis have already fled the renewed fighting, CNN reported, and shippers face mounting risks on two chokepoints at once — the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz. With the U.S.-Iran confrontation grinding on and the Yemen truce in ruins, the region’s overlapping conflicts are converging into a single crisis over energy and trade.
