A month after Yemen government offensive began, war of attrition takes hold
The Houthis suffer losses but also inflict pain on government forces and Saudi Arabia.
Sanaa, Yemen – When news broke on October 5 that Yemen’s internationally recognised government was launching a major new offensive to take control of territories held by Houthi fighters, Mohammed Ahmed began to prepare for the worst.
Sanaa has been under Houthi control since late 2014 after the Houthis seized the capital city in the initial phase of a civil war that has ebbed and flowed for more than a decade.
But when it announced Operation Dawn of Yemen, the new offensive, last month, Yemeni government forces, backed by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition, declared they would aim to retake control of all parts of the country held by the Houthis, including Sanaa.
Yazeed al-Jeddawy, a research manager at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera that the course of the conflict increasingly appears to be moving towards a prolonged war of attrition as the government offensive has not shifted the balance of power over the past 30 days.