Fifteen US airstrikes hit districts in Yemen’s Marib province on Monday, Yemen’s SABA news agency reported, as the daily US bombing campaign on the country continues.
Marib is in the eastern part of Houthi-controlled Yemen, which is where 80% of Yemenis live. The province was the site of heavy ground fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces in 2021 during the US-backed Saudi/UAE war on Yemen, which hasn’t officially ended but has been frozen since a 2022 ceasefire.
The 2022 ceasefire ended Saudi airstrikes on Yemen, but there have been occasional flare-ups on the ground, including in Marib, and Saudi shelling across the Saudi-Yemen border.
The US strikes on Marib come amid reports that the US and Saudi-backed government, which is based in Saudi Arabia, may be preparing forces for a ground assault against the Houthis, who are officially known as Ansar Allah. While the government’s leadership is based in Saudi Arabia, its allied forces are in the eastern and southern parts of Yemen.
Ahmed Hassan, a commentator based in Yemen, said in a post on X that the US attacks on Marib could be an indication that a ground offensive is imminent since the strikes hit areas where the Houthis have defensive lines.
Backing a new ground offensive against the Houthis means the US would likely be supporting fighters linked to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The Saudi/UAE coalition that fought against the Houthis is known for recruiting al-Qaeda members to fight on the ground, and the military wing of the US-backed government includes former al-Qaeda commanders.
The daily US airstrikes have failed to deter the Houthis, who have vowed their attacks against Israel and Israeli shipping would continue until there’s a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli blockade on the territory.
A senior member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau has said the Houthis would stop attacks on US warships if the US stopped bombing Yemen. Trump administration officials have claimed they would stop the airstrikes if the Houthis declared they would stop targeting US ships, but there’s no sign the US is considering the offer since the bombing campaign is really about protecting Israel.
If anyone is wondering: Marib governorate is wrongly labeled in the map as "Harib". The map is not too trustworthy anyhow, as it's based in Wikipedia's, which carries on dramatic errors, notably the alleged black patch of ISIS control, which is totally unreal:
Ironically Wikipedia has finally fixed the error but South Front hasn't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yemeni_Civil_War.svg
According to this much more realistic reconstruction of the Yemeni civil war (mostly Saudi invasion of Yemen), the country is mostly divided between the Sana'a government (Ansarullah and allies) and the Southern Transitional Council (separatist Southern Yemeni group), with the "official" Yemeni government (recognized by most states and the UN) controlling only pockets and zero or negligible Islamo-fascist presence as such:
https://youtu.be/wss0cRi64jU?feature=shared&t=599
We can see (and it's confirmed by Wikipedia's fixed map , with minor variations) that the Saudi-backed official "Yemen" only controls pockets and deserts and that the two main parties in the post-war (there's been a China-brokered ceasefire cum "peace process" since 2021 and nobody seems keen of breaking it) are the so-called "Houthis" ( Supreme Political Council ) and the Southern Transitional Council. Nobody in Yemen wants to end to ceasefire anyhow: Saudi Arabia tried to destroy Ansarullah for a decade and failed, the Southern Council know that they can't defeat the much more densely populated North, so, if Trump wants to put boots in the ground in Yemen, it will have to be US troops, as not even Britain is anymore backing the USA in Yemen: there's no "coalition" of any sort.
Understanding this means to understand why Trump's blah-blah on Yemen is not going anywhere, because I'm pretty sure that the USA is not able to field another Vietnam War.
The "recognized government " is reported to be "preparing to mass" 80K troops with the US providing air and drone surveillance support. This from a "leading expert," Dr. Abdulaziz Sager (an arrogant Saudi blowhard who reminds me of Ahmed Chalabi.)
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-849945
Nothing in either of Yemen news agencies.
Speculative IMO (do you trust the sources?) but, would that be the case, I can only forecast the re-unification of Yemen (Socotra excepted) in a matter of months. Saudi Arabia and all other regional powers (save Israel of course, but these have full hands in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, let alone the sarcastic invitation by Trump for them to lead the hypothetical invasion of Iran). Firstly, I doubt that the "official government" can muster that kind of force (even with the backing of the Southern Council); Wikipedia talks of a 113,500 soldiers (at the apogee of the civil war, several years ago?), including all factions, but with a "citation needed" mark, so it's someone's guesstimate rather than a real figure. Much less I believe that they are combat worthy or that they do not massively desert in favor of the (now extremely legitimized) "Houthi" regime — I mean: they would be fighting for Israel and the genocide of their Palestinian brethren!
In the best case scenario for the USA, it might be able to establish a protectorate in South Yemen and get some military bases in Aden, Socotra, etc. Maybe that's what Trump is after ultimately?
The Jerusalem Post is the source, zionist-biased, all else attributed to it, with nothing in the Yemeni/other ME/WA press I could find. What gives it some credibility, beyond the fact the US is a lawless warmonger bent on world domination :), is CentCom Comdr Gen. Kurilla visisted Israel, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen in a 5-day trip April 1-5. https://www.centcom.mil/MEDIA/PRESS-RELEASES/Press-Release-View/Article/4149402/uscentcom-commander-meets-senior-leaders-from-six-countries-during-middle-east/
And to your point of force strength – Saudis are known for using al Qaeda (or ISIS I cant remember which) mercenaries. And finally the Houthis are embarrassing the hell out of the 'Exceptional' failing racist, supremacist, colonial ex-Hegemon.
Would you put the Houthis above the Ukrainians as a fighting force and Putin above the west as a strategist? Recognized or not the Houthis are the only state trying to stop this Genocide!
Anasrullah is much much better than Ukraine on various issues: (1) they have the moral upper ground, a very solid one, while Ukraine has been a nazi-dominated regime for more than a decade already (they compare better to Israel, Russia compares bettwe to Yemen in fact, at least in this issue of the upper moral ground), (2) they have massive experience of over a decade fighting the local US proxy (Saudi Arabia) and winning, (3) they have developed their own home-made avantguard weapons such as drones and missiles, hypersonic missiles even, which have proven decisive and only grow in number and sophistication as more war goes on (recently someone from Cornwall even “thanked” the USA for training the Yemeni revolutionary forces, go figure!)
Ukraine is OK at war, they have managed to slow down the Russian advance and make Putin lament the various missed opportunities to make the war much shorter and less painful in the past but Ansarullah is something completely different: they are armed “liberation theology” with Muslim and pan-Arabist flavor (and Muslims typically don’t offer the other cheek when slapped, you know) and they have pioneered some of the most advanced forms of modern popular war.
Thank you, you're right, the Zaydis have been fighting tyranny and corruption for >1300 years and some time virtue has to win.
Yemen is acting responsibly to stop genocide and the U.S. is bombing them for it
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/04/yemen-is-acting-responsibly-to-stop-genocide-and-the-u-s-is-bombing-them-for-it/
From unlawfully bombing the Houthis to an unlawful ground attack. For Israel.
Trump will never allow or admit for someone else to have moral superiority over the mighty USA and its present emperor.
If he was still alive, Jeffrey Dahmer could make a fair case for moral superiority over the present emperor.
LMFAO (apologies, shades of my bartendng days return to my vocabulary)
When it comes to extraterritorial US miltary legality under international law none of our emperors have had any morality.
So you think Trump will allow or agree that someone else is smarter or more "moral" than he?
Does anyone recall which amendment to the constitution declares jihad on the Shia? I was absent that day.
The Saudis would be fools to engage in a ground offensive. Its a war they can't win.
"its a war they can't win" I don't disagree with you. However, I would like to know your thinking on why not?
The border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen is populated by Arab tribes that are predominantly Yemeni although they have Saudi citizenship. The patriarch of the Saudi ruling clan, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, told his family "leave Yemen poor so it will always be easy to control." Through money and intervention they keep Yemen weak and divided. However, they could never conquer it. The Egyptians under Nasser were in Yemen for 7 years (1962-69) and probably lost as many as 20,000 soldiers.
In 2015 Saudi Arabia began a merciless bombing campaign to dislodge the Houthis from power and failed miserably. The Yemenis learned from this and went under ground.
In addition, Saudis are not fighters. They rely on patrons like the US and money to purchase military hardware they don't even know how to operate. The Yemenis are warriors and have nothing to lose. If Yemen bombed a few oil fields or launched missiles at Riyadh, the Saudis would capitulate.
If the Americans put troops on the ground, it would increase the calls for jihad to liberate Muslim lands.
Finally as Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza have demonstrated an aerial bombing campaign is not enough to decide the war, and aground offensive is fatal.
"Backing a new ground offensive against the Houthis means the US would likely be supporting fighters linked to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)"
Not even 25 years later and 9/11 is rapidly losing relevance & reason to have been taken seriously.
Those familiar with Operation Paperclip and Operation Sunrise will say the same of the European theatre of WW2.
According to Scott Ritter US bombed Yemen with their largest conventional weapon, the 30,000-lb bombs using B-2 bombers and Still It's Not Working…!