The Japan Times - Riyadh's allies pledge troops as Yemen, Saudi Arabia attack Houthis

The Yemeni military said it carried out more than 1,000 strikes and began an offensive against the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, while the Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally recognised government said 100 warplanes flew sorties at dawn.

The government had announced on Sunday the lofty goal of retaking all Houthi territory -- home to most of Yemen's population, and much of it held for more than a decade.

Last month the Iran-backed group seized swathes of coastline along the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint for oil and cargo shipping, in Yemen's deadliest fighting in years.

The Houthis have also been attacking neighbouring Saudi Arabia since Yemen's civil war flared back to life, and have declared a maritime blockade on its ships.

On Monday, representatives of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey held an emergency meeting in Riyadh under the auspices of a joint defence agreement signed in August committing them to come to each other's aid in the event of any attack.

In a joint statement, they noted recent strikes on Saudi Arabia and reaffirmed "their unequivocal rejection of any attack or threat against the Kingdom's security" without mentioning the Iran-backed Houthis by name.

They also agreed "to move immediately to the practical implementation of the collective defence commitments and to take the necessary measures to provide the agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their rapid deployment in the Kingdom".

The statement did not specify what sort of role the troops would fill once in Saudi Arabia.

The announcement came as loud blasts rang out in the north of Riyadh, with an AFP journalist reporting hearing a "powerful explosion"

Residents living in the area, which is not far from the King Khalid International Airport, also heard the explosions, with one local saying "the windows in my house shook" as a result.

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".

- Global oil system 'straining' -

Houthi attacks have also targeted Saudi oil infrastructure, as well as its tankers in the Red Sea.

A source in the Saudi energy sector told AFP that an attack Sunday had again halted pumping by the East-West pipeline to the Red Sea, a key conduit for the kingdom's exports since Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the wider Middle East war.

Later on Monday, the Houthi agency that liaises with airlines warned that Saudi airspace was not safe for civilian flights as it "will be the theatre of operations of our armed forces".

Crude prices had already been soaring as a result of the Middle East war, before the Houthis began targeting the world's largest oil exporter.

Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser warned on Monday that global oil stockpiles were "scarily thin" owing to the war.

"The system is already straining," Nasser told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London.

- 'Round-the-clock air support' -

On Monday, Yemen's military spokesman announced over 1,000 strikes against Houthi targets including artillery and rocket launcher positions, combat reinforcements and supply lines.

Saudi-led coalition spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki, meanwhile, said 100 jets flew at daybreak as part of an operation dubbed "Dawn of Yemen", providing "round-the-clock air support for the Yemeni armed forces on the ground".

Yemen's military also announced a "strategic offensive" against Sanaa, which has been in Houthi hands since the outset of the country's civil war in 2014.

The Houthis' official news agency said a girl and a woman were killed in Sanaa governorate on Sunday.

The strikes have yet to roll back the Houthis' advances, however.

On Sunday, the group effectively encircled the city of Taiz after cutting the main supply route linking it to the interim government capital of Aden.

- Mokha fighting -

Yemeni military sources said Monday that pro-government forces had cut off the only supply route to the Houthi-held city of Mocha, but stopped short of confirming an official announcement of the port's recapture.

The sources added that they were working to "consolidate our positions, and our objective is to advance to retake Mocha and besiege the Houthis stationed in Bab al-Mandab", the strategic strait at the mouth of the Red Sea.

While the war in Yemen predates the broader Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, it has become its most active front in recent weeks. According to UN figures, the fighting has displaced more than 184,000 people.

Yemen's civil war began broke out in 2014, with the Saudis intervening the following March, but fighting was paused by a 2022 ceasefire that held until July of this year.

The conflict caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and plunged Yemen into a deep humanitarian crisis.

burs-smw/pdw

H.Nakamura--JT