Iran-backed Houthis seize another town in Yemen as they advance toward key city of Taiz

ADEN, Yemen (AP) — The Iran-backed Houthi rebels captured more territory in southwestern Yemen , taking a key town in a blow to the Saudi-backed government forces as they advanced Monday toward a strategic provincial capital in the region.

The fall of the town of Turbah came on Sunday, shortly before the internationally recognized government announced a major military operation against the Houthis. The escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis has revived Yemen’s civil war after a four-year ceasefire.

Turbah sits on a main road linking the provincial capital of Taiz with the port city of Aden, which serves as an interim seat of the internationally recognized government. Over the years, the town was a major post for the government forces defending Taiz against the Houthis.

Earlier, the Houthis seized several villages and areas on Taiz's outskirts in a series of advances, paving the way for the rebels to encircle Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city.

The Iranian-backed rebels made a swift push on the country's western coast on the Red Sea in early September. They captured the strategic city of Mokha and several Red Sea islands, gains that enabled them to control the Yemeni side of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a crucial chokepoint through which 12% of global trade transits.

In their weekend announcement Sunday, the Saudi-backed government said it was mobilizing troops across government-held areas.

Rashad al-Alimi, head of the ruling Presidential Leadership Council, said in a televised speech that the operations were aiming at “recovering the remaining territories” controlled by the Houthis. He called for the international community to provide support to his government.

Hours after al-Alimi’s declaration, a Saudi military spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, vowed “full operational support” to the Yemeni government forces, until the Houthis are “eliminated.”

Al-Malki also stressed Saudi Arabia’s right to take all necessary measures to deter the rebels who continued to fire missiles and drones at the kingdom as part of the nearly three-month escalation that revived Yemen’s civil war.

The latest flare-up began in mid-July, when the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of bombing the airport in Sanaa, Yemen's rebel-controlled capital, to prevent the landing of an unauthorized Iranian flight. The rebels responded with missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government forces in the country.

They also announced a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea and attacked several Saudi-linked vessels.

Then in September, they intensified their campaign, storming down the Red Sea coast in their biggest land grab in years.

The rebels' taking of Turbah “will likely severely constrain Yemeni government-aligned forces’ ability to reinforce and resupply front-line positions” across Taiz province and the provincial capital of Taiz, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

“Disrupting resupply has military value, of course, but controlling all the roads in and out of areas to the north of Turbah also prevents government forces from retreating out of the city,” the think tank wrote in a Sunday analysis.

The escalation has revived Yemen’s civil war that began in 2014 when the Houthis descended from their northern stronghold, capturing Sanaa and forcing the government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia. The war created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters and killed more than 150,000 people.

The latest bout of violence has killed more than 800 people and wounded over 3,600 others, the United Nations has said. The flare-up forced over 145,000 people to flee their homes inside Yemen, according to the U.N. migration agency. More than 3,000 others fled across the waters into Djibouti, the agency reported.

Magdy reported from Cairo.